Installation

BoatmanMode can be installed as a pre-built binary, via go install, or built from source.

Prerequisites

Tool	Purpose	How to Install
`claude`	AI code generation & review	Claude CLI docs (opens in a new tab)
`gh`	Pull request creation	`brew install gh` then `gh auth login`
`git`	Version control	Pre-installed on most systems
`tmux`	Agent session management	`brew install tmux`

Claude CLI Setup (Vertex AI)

# Authenticate with Google Cloud
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login
 
# Set environment variables
export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX=1
export CLOUD_ML_REGION=us-east5
export ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id

Or use an Anthropic API key directly:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxxx

Option 1: Pre-built Binary (Recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from the releases page (opens in a new tab), or use the install script:

# macOS/Linux one-liner
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/main/install.sh | bash
 
# Specific version
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --version v1.0.0
 
# Custom install directory
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --dir ~/bin

Supported Platforms

OS	Architecture	Binary
macOS	Intel (amd64)	`boatmanmode_vX.Y.Z_Darwin_x86_64.tar.gz`
macOS	Apple Silicon (arm64)	`boatmanmode_vX.Y.Z_Darwin_arm64.tar.gz`
Linux	x86_64	`boatmanmode_vX.Y.Z_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz`
Linux	ARM64	`boatmanmode_vX.Y.Z_Linux_arm64.tar.gz`
Windows	x86_64	`boatmanmode_vX.Y.Z_Windows_x86_64.zip`

Option 2: Install with Go

go install github.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/cmd/boatman@latest

Option 3: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/philjestin/boatmanmode
cd boatmanmode
go build -o boatman ./cmd/boatman
 
# Add to PATH
sudo mv boatman /usr/local/bin/

Building from the Monorepo

git clone https://github.com/philjestin/boatman
cd boatman
make build-cli
 
# The binary is at cli/boatman
# Install to ~/bin:
make install-cli

Verify Installation

boatman version

Expected output:

boatman version v1.0.0
  commit: abc123def
  built:  2026-02-13T00:00:00Z
  go:     go1.24.1
  os/arch: darwin/arm64

Use boatman version --verbose for detailed build information.

Verifying Binary Integrity

Each release includes SHA256 checksums:

# Download checksums
curl -LO https://github.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/releases/download/v1.0.0/checksums.txt
 
# Verify
sha256sum -c checksums.txt --ignore-missing

Overview Configuration