zero

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Install Guide

Install the latest compiler release and validate your environment.

Install Zero

Install the latest Zero release:

curl -fsSL https://zerolang.ai/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$HOME/.zero/bin:$PATH"
zero --version

The installer downloads the latest matching binary from github.com/vercel-labs/zero, verifies it against the release checksum file, and writes it to $HOME/.zero/bin/zero. Set ZERO_INSTALL_DIR to choose a different install directory. On Linux it installs the static musl build by default; set ZERO_LINUX_FLAVOR=gnu to install the glibc-targeted build.

Use zero doctor to check the local environment:

zero doctor
zero doctor --json

Supported native executable builds use direct emitters, so a C compiler is not required for the normal path.

zero doctor still checks the pieces that affect real builds:

  • PATH health
  • workspace write access
  • bundled target support
  • target SDK/sysroot readiness
  • interop tool readiness

zero doctor --json includes targetToolchains, a per-target readiness matrix for relevant tools.

The --emit wasm --target wasm32-wasi path writes a minimal WebAssembly module directly and does not require an external C toolchain. It supports the direct-wasm MVP subset.

zero build --emit exe --target linux-musl-x64 examples/hello.0 --out .zero/out/hello

To build the compiler from a local checkout instead, use the repository wrapper:

npm install
make -C native/zero-c
bin/zero --version

The repository validation commands are:

npm run conformance
npm run native:test
npm run docs:test
ZERO_BENCH_RUNS=1 npm run bench