Installing

Neuron can be installed on Windows, Linux or macOS.

Prerequisites

Nix

Neuron can be installed via the Nix1 package manager. Install Nix as follows:

curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

OS-specific notes

  • If you are on Windows, you should begin by installing Ubuntu on WSL 2 (not WSL 1), before installing Nix on it.2
  • If you are on macOS Catalina or later, refer to the macOS Installation section of the Nix manual on how to install Nix.

As an alternative to Nix, you may try the Docker workflow#.

Enable cache

Enable the Nix cache for neuron.

nix-env -iA cachix -f https://cachix.org/api/v1/install
cachix use srid

If you skip this step, your machine will spend some time compiling the neuron source code, as well as take more disk space.

Install neuron

To install the latest development version (see Neuron v1 if you are looking for an older version) of neuron, run:

nix-env -if https://github.com/srid/neuron/archive/master.tar.gz

Note that this command can also upgrade your existing install of neuron.

For alternative mechanisms, see Declarative Install#.

Test your install

Make sure that you can execute the neuron executable. You should expect the following:

Usage: neuron [--version] [-d PATH] [-o PATH] COMMAND
  Neuron, future-proof Zettelkasten app <https://neuron.zettel.page/>

Available options:
  --version                Show version
  -d PATH                  Run as if neuron was started in PATH instead of the
                           current working directory
  -o PATH                  Custom path to generate static site in
  -h,--help                Show this help text

Available commands:
  gen                      Generate and serve the static site
  new                      Create a new zettel
  open                     Open the local static site
  search                   Search zettels and print their path
  query                    Query the zettelkasten in JSON

What’s next?

Proceed to the Tutorial.

  1. Nix is a general package manager that you can use to manage other software and services as well. See here.

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  2. For further tips on using neuron on WSL, see here.

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