Installation

Overwire ships as a desktop app with a scriptable CLI companion. Both run the same engine.

macOS

Download the DMG for your architecture (Apple silicon or Intel) from overwire.io, drag Overwire to Applications, and open it. The app is signed and notarized.

Windows

Download the installer for 64-bit Windows from overwire.io and run it. The installer is signed, installs machine-wide to C:\Program Files\Overwire, and Windows asks for administrator approval during installation and when applying app updates.

While a new release builds download reputation, Microsoft SmartScreen may interpose “Windows protected your PC” on first run. Select More info, check the named publisher, and choose Run anyway.

For live runs on Windows, the container engine runs on WSL 2 (e.g., Docker Desktop with its WSL 2 backend) — see Live execution below.

CLI (any platform with Node.js)

The CLI requires Node.js 20 or newer. Install it from npm:

npm install -g overwire

Verify the environment once installed:

overwire doctor

doctor checks your Node version, container engine reachability, and the .overwire/ config tree, and tells you exactly what is missing for live runs.

Live execution (optional)

Live step execution needs a Docker-API-compatible container engine (e.g., Docker Desktop, Colima, OrbStack, Rancher Desktop). Mock runs, parsing, linting, and simulation work without one.

Next step

Initialize a project to scaffold the .overwire/ config tree.