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Install on macOS (Homebrew)

Install ~alter’s always-on daemon on macOS via Homebrew. The Formula wraps the prebuilt alter-runtime release binary and registers a launchd plist named com.truealter.alter-runtime.

What you get

  • •alter-runtime binary on $PATH.
  • •launchd plist com.truealter.alter-runtime.
  • •Default config root at ~/Library/Application Support/alter/. Runtime socket falls back to the macOS DARWIN_USER_DIR when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is unset.

Install

Install the runtime with pip

The alter-runtime daemon installs on any platform with pip install alter-runtime. The tap is live and carries the alter CLI Formula (see below).

The Formula is served from the official tap at true-alter/homebrew-tap. Tap once, then install:

bash
brew tap true-alter/tap
brew install alter-runtime

Need the CLI too? The alter CLI is on the same tap today: brew install true-alter/tap/alter, or via npm. See the npm install guide for details.

Start the daemon

bash
brew services start alter-runtime

Verify

bash
alter-runtime --version
brew services info alter-runtime

Cross-platform unity

However a person installs alter-runtime, the runtime they get is the same runtime everyone else gets: same socket protocol, same ~handle resolution, same DNS-TXT discovery, same federation endpoints. macOS uses launchd rather than systemd; the plist is a local-idiom optimisation, not a divergence in the runtime. A macOS user federates with users on any other channel identically.

Next steps

Getting started

Bind a ~handle and make your first authenticated request.

~handle protocol

How ~handle resolution works on top of the running daemon.

Docs | ~alter