Installation

Telesis is a TypeScript application compiled to a single static binary using Bun. It runs on macOS and Linux.

Prerequisites

Before installing Telesis, you need:

• Node.js 18+ or Bun — Telesis uses Bun for compilation, but pnpm for package management during development.
• Git — Telesis operates on git repositories and uses git for branching, committing, and pushing.
• An Anthropic API key — Telesis uses Claude for its AI-powered features (initialization interview, code review, planning, validation). Set the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable.

Optional, depending on your workflow:

• A GitHub personal access token — Required for telesis intake github, PR creation, and issue management. Set the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.
• An ACP-compatible agent — Required for telesis dispatch and telesis run. The default agent is Claude Code (claude), but any ACP-compatible agent works.

Quick Install

The fastest way to install Telesis:

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curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/delightfulhammers/telesis/main/install.sh | sh

This detects your platform (macOS/Linux, arm64/x64), downloads the latest release from GitHub, and installs both telesis and telesis-mcp to your PATH.

To install a specific version:

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TELESIS_VERSION=v0.27.0 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/delightfulhammers/telesis/main/install.sh | sh

To install to a custom directory:

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TELESIS_INSTALL_DIR=~/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/delightfulhammers/telesis/main/install.sh | sh

Updating

Check for updates:

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telesis update --check

Install the latest version:

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telesis update

The daemon also checks for updates daily and sends an OS notification when a new version is available.

Installing from Source

Clone the repository and build:

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git clone https://github.com/delightfulhammers/telesis.git
cd telesis
pnpm install
pnpm run build

The build step compiles Telesis into a single binary using bun build --compile. The output binary is self-contained — no runtime dependencies required.

Running in Development

For development or trying Telesis without building:

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bun run src/index.ts

This runs Telesis directly from source. All CLI commands work identically.

Verifying Your Installation

Run telesis --help to verify the binary works:

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telesis --help

You should see a list of all available commands. To verify your API key is configured:

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telesis status

If you haven’t initialized a project yet, this will tell you to run telesis init first — that’s expected.

Environment Variables

Shell Completion

Telesis uses Commander.js for its CLI. You can generate shell completions by following Commander’s completion documentation for your shell (bash, zsh, fish).

Next Steps

Once installed, head to Quick Start to initialize your first project.