Install It

This page walks you through getting Conmux onto your own Windows machine. Up front: there is no prebuilt installer to download yet, so you either install the CLI version with cargo or build the GUI version from source. Sounds a bit manual, but every step is written out — just follow along.

Check Your Machine First

  • OS: Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11. Conmux runs on Windows only — its entire reason for existing is going the Windows-native route, so there is no macOS / Linux build.
  • For the CLI version (crate): you need the Rust toolchain, with the MSVC component (picking the default x86_64-pc-windows-msvc when installing Rust is exactly right).
  • For building the GUI version from source: on top of Rust above, add Node.js 18 or later (which ships with npm), plus Git.

Tip: if you just want a quick taste of what Conmux can do, installing the CLI version under option ① below is the least hassle — no Node required, done in minutes. Save the GUI build for when you're sure you'll use it.

Three Paths — Pick One

① The CLI version (the conmux crate) — lightest, fastest

It's one command:

cargo install --locked conmux

Once it's installed you have the conmux command and can start sessions, split panes, and detach / attach right away (see Your First Session & Split Panes for how). This tier has no GUI and is the smallest-memory-footprint one — the same one What It Is & Why It's Worth Using means by "if you're chasing minimal memory, pick this."

If you want to use Conmux as a library inside your own Rust project (rather than running it as a CLI tool), skip cargo install and add one line to your project's Cargo.toml instead:

[dependencies]
conmux = "0.1"

② Build the GUI version from source (conmux-app)

For now, the GUI version can only be built yourself. Four steps:

git clone https://github.com/Verson1daddy/Conmux.git
cd Conmux\conmux-app
npm install
npm run tauri:build

After a successful build, the Windows installer (NSIS format) is in this directory:

conmux-app\src-tauri\target\release\bundle\nsis\

Inside you'll find a .exe installer — double-click it to install Conmux onto your system.

Pitfalls you might hit:

  • The first run of npm run tauri:build takes a while — it has to compile the entire Rust backend, and anywhere from a few minutes to over ten is normal the first time. Don't assume it's hung.
  • If Rust or Node isn't set up properly, this step errors out partway through; go back to "Check Your Machine First" above, fill the gaps, and rerun.
  • The installer is unsigned (see below for why), so Windows pops a SmartScreen prompt when you double-click it — how to handle that is also covered below.

③ Download an installer straight from Releases · 🚧 Roadmap (not built yet)

Eventually there will be prebuilt installers on the GitHub Releases page, and you won't have to build anything yourself. They're not there yet, so for now the GUI version is source-build-only via option ② above. Come back to this path once installers ship.

About "Unsigned" and That Scary Blue Box

Whether it's an installer you built yourself or one from Releases later, it will be unsigned — this is a student's open-source project, and there's no budget for a code-signing certificate.

The consequence: when you double-click the installer, Windows SmartScreen pops a blue box saying "Windows protected your PC" and "Publisher: Unknown." This does not mean something is wrong with the software — it's just how Windows treats every program that didn't pay for a certificate. To keep installing, click:

More info → Run anyway

The box goes away and installation proceeds normally. If that prompt genuinely makes you uneasy, take option ① the CLI route instead — cargo install goes through Rust's official package distribution and never touches the whole SmartScreen business.

Installed — Now What?