From source

The bootstrap installers (install.sh, install.ps1) already fall back to a source build when a release binary is unavailable. This page covers building Gormes directly when you want the inspectable, hands-on path.

When to choose source over the installer

Air-gapped or offline networks where the GitHub Releases API is not reachable.
Audit and review before running any installer — clone, read the tree, build locally, then put the fresh binary first on PATH.
Custom build flags or tags such as -tags slim or -tags gormes_lite (see the hardware/build-profile notes).
Non-main branches or feature work where release archives are not published.
Unsupported platforms that do not yet have a release asset.

Source builds require Git and Go 1.26+. The installer can fetch a managed Go for you; for a hand-built source clone, install Go from your distribution or go.dev.

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/TrebuchetDynamics/gormes-agent.git
cd gormes-agent
mkdir -p bin
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -o bin/gormes ./cmd/gormes
./bin/gormes --version
./bin/gormes doctor --offline

The command produces bin/gormes from ./cmd/gormes without CGO or local path metadata. Running ./bin/gormes while validating local changes prevents an older installed gormes from shadowing the fresh build.

To use that checkout build as gormes from the current shell:

export PATH="$PWD/bin:$PATH"
gormes --version

To run the binary directly without installing:

go run ./cmd/gormes --version
go run ./cmd/gormes doctor --offline

Build profiles

Profile	Command	Notes
Full (default)	`mkdir -p bin && CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -o bin/gormes ./cmd/gormes`	All standard tools and helpers compiled in. Linux release build is ~40 MB.
Slim	`mkdir -p bin && CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -tags slim -o bin/gormes-slim ./cmd/gormes`	Excludes TTS, transcription, voice mode, and image generation helpers at compile time. Smaller binary.
Lite	`mkdir -p bin && CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -tags gormes_lite -o bin/gormes-lite ./cmd/gormes`	Omits audio/image helpers from the default tool registry; intended for constrained hosts.

Pre-compiled release archives

Tagged releases publish a per-platform archive plus checksum sidecar to GitHub Releases:

gormes-${version}-${os}-${arch}.tar.gz
gormes-${version}-${os}-${arch}.tar.gz.sha256

Supported ${os}-${arch} slugs: linux-amd64, linux-arm64, darwin-amd64, darwin-arm64, windows-amd64, windows-arm64, android-arm64.

The bootstrap installers download both files and verify the archive SHA-256 before extracting gormes (or gormes.exe). If you prefer not to run the installer, download and verify the archive manually, extract it, and place the binary on PATH yourself.

Verify

After any source or release install:

gormes --version
gormes doctor --offline

gormes doctor --offline runs the local runtime, TUI, gateway, and memory diagnostics without any network call, so it is the right check to use before adding provider credentials.