Installation

Quick install (recommended)

curl -fsSL getpurple.sh | sh

Works on macOS and Linux. Downloads the latest release, verifies the checksum and installs the binary.

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install erickochen/purple/purple

Update with brew upgrade purple.

Cargo

Cargo is the Rust package manager. The crate name is purple-ssh (the name purple was taken on crates.io). The binary is still called purple.

cargo install purple-ssh

Update with cargo install purple-ssh (overwrites the existing binary).

Nix

Nix and NixOS users can install via the flake:

nix profile install github:erickochen/purple

A development shell with Rust, cargo-audit and cargo-deny is also available:

nix develop github:erickochen/purple

Update by running the install command again or via your flake update workflow.

If you import this flake as an input in a NixOS configuration, pin its nixpkgs to your own to avoid pulling in a second nixpkgs evaluation:

inputs.purple = {
  url = "github:erickochen/purple";
  inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};

Arch Linux (AUR)

Three flavours are available on the AUR:

• purple-bin is the prebuilt binary, fastest install.
• purple compiles from the release tarball.
• purple-git is rolling and builds from master HEAD.

Install with an AUR helper:

paru -S purple-bin
yay -S purple-bin

aura, pikaur and any other AUR helper work the same way. Without a helper, build manually:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/purple-bin.git
cd purple-bin
makepkg -si

Update with the same command. The -git flavour rebuilds against current master on every update.

From source

git clone https://github.com/erickochen/purple.git
cd purple && cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/purple.

Claude Desktop (.mcpb bundle)

For Claude Desktop users who only need the MCP server (not the TUI), download the latest .mcpb from the GitHub releases page and double-click to install. The bundled installation runs in --read-only mode by default. See MCP Server for details.

This is independent of the regular install paths above. Install both if you want the TUI on your terminal AND a one-click setup for Claude Desktop.

Updating

purple update                                              # curl installs: downloads and replaces binary
brew upgrade purple                                        # Homebrew
cargo install purple-ssh                                   # Cargo
nix profile upgrade github:erickochen/purple               # Nix
paru -S purple-bin                                         # Arch Linux (AUR), or: yay -S purple-bin

The TUI shows an update notification badge when a new version is available. The badge shows the first changelog bullet as a headline. Run purple update to see the full release notes.

Shell completions

Generate completions for your shell:

purple --completions bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/purple
purple --completions zsh > ~/.zfunc/_purple
purple --completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/purple.fish

Requirements

• macOS or Linux (Windows via WSL)
• A terminal emulator with ANSI escape code support (Ghostty, iTerm2, Terminal.app, Alacritty, kitty, WezTerm, Warp, Windows Terminal via WSL). purple is developed and tested primarily on Ghostty
• System ssh binary (purple uses your installed OpenSSH, it does not bundle its own SSH implementation)