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The Novalis starfighterNOVALIS

Getting started

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel), the primary platform today. The renderer is cross-platform (wgpu); Linux (Vulkan) and Windows (DX12) builds arrive with the public release.
  • A GPU. Novalis draws every frame on wgpu; Metal on macOS.
  • Rust (stable) if building from source.

Build and run from source

Section titled “Build and run from source”
Terminal window
git clone <your-invite-remote> novalis
cd novalis
cargo run --release --manifest-path app/Cargo.toml --bin novalis

The release binary lands in app/target/release/novalis.

First run

Section titled “First run”

On first launch Novalis:

  1. Detects your default shell from $SHELL and spawns it as a login shell.
  2. Offers shell integration for zsh, bash, and fish; this is what powers blocks, working-directory tracking, and the agent-aware prompt. Say yes.
  3. Opens the onboarding deck; a two-minute tour of blocks, panes, and the agent bar.

Verify the good stuff

Section titled “Verify the good stuff”
Terminal window
# Blocks: run anything; the output should group under the command
ls -la


# Truecolor
echo -e "\e[38;2;240;140;40mengine orange\e[0m"


# Unicode + emoji
echo "Hello 你好 مرحبا 🚀"

Open the command palette with ⌘P and type; everything Novalis can do is in there. Settings live behind ⌘,.

Providers (for AI features)

Section titled “Providers (for AI features)”

The AI bar and agent mode speak to Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or a local Ollama. Add a key in Settings → Providers: keys are stored in the OS keychain, never in config files.