Install

v5 is in prerelease. Stable Hack today is the v4 line, installed with Homebrew or the release installer. v5 prereleases install beside it through a separate channel, hack-next, so you can try v5 without touching your stable setup. When 5.0.0 ships, the Homebrew formula and release installer move to v5.

PrerequisitesCopy Anchor Link

• A running Docker-compatible engine with Docker Compose for the default backend. Check it with docker info and docker compose version.
• For the native backend (beta): an Apple Silicon Mac. See Native backend (beta).
• Local DNS and certificate trust are set up once per machine by hack global install and can ask for native approval.

v5 prerelease bundles are published for Apple Silicon macOS only. Other platforms stay on stable v4 until 5.0.0.

Install the current prereleaseCopy Anchor Link

Each prerelease has an immutable tag, v5.0.0-next.N. Download the bootstrap from the release you want and run it:

curl --fail --location --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 \
  https://github.com/hack-dance/hack/releases/download/v5.0.0-next.12/hack-next-install.sh \
  --output hack-next-install.sh
less hack-next-install.sh
sh hack-next-install.sh
"$HOME/.hack-next/bin/hack-next" --version

The bootstrap pins its manager checksum and release version. It installs into ~/.hack-next, does not edit your PATH or shell profile, and leaves the stable hack executable and ~/.hack untouched. Installing does not migrate projects, start a VM, or change DNS or trust.

Newer prereleases are listed on the releases page. Replace the tag in the URL to install a different one. The prerelease channel guide explains versioning, platform support and the installer in detail.

Choose a backendCopy Anchor Link

The hack CLI runs on Docker Compose unless you select native with HACK_RUNTIME_BACKEND=native. The hack-next launcher is the exception: it exists to test the native candidate, so it selects native by default and version-private homes. To run the prerelease CLI on Compose against your ordinary Hack home:

export HACK_RUNTIME_BACKEND=compose
"$HOME/.hack-next/bin/hack-next" --version

The export applies to every later hack-next command in that shell. A one-off HACK_RUNTIME_BACKEND=compose prefix selects Compose for that command only; the next command without it runs native again. Unset the variable before native testing.

On Compose, the prerelease shares project state with stable v4. Do not run both against the same home at the same time, including their daemons. The prerelease install page gives the exact order: stop the stable daemon first, then run the prerelease.

The rest of these docs write hack for the v5 CLI. During the prerelease, in the shell where you exported the backend, run the examples through the launcher:

hack() { "$HOME/.hack-next/bin/hack-next" "$@"; }

This shell function lasts for the session and does not touch your PATH or the stable hack executable in other shells.

Set up local routingCopy Anchor Link

Once per machine:

hack global install

This configures shared local routing, DNS and certificate trust. Read its prompts. Continue with Getting started.

Source: v5 (next.12) · docs/site/install.md.