Installation

TAU is currently available for macOS. Linux and Windows support coming soon.

Prerequisites

A modern terminal emulator (iTerm2, Alacritty, WezTerm, Ghostty, Kitty)
One of: Claude Pro/Max, GitHub Copilot subscription, or LLM API key
For local embeddings: macOS with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3)

Install Script

The easiest way to install TAU:

curl -fsSL https://taulepton.com/install | bash

Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap taulepton/tap
brew install tau

First Run

On first launch, TAU will:

Initialize database at ~/.local/share/tau/tau.db
Detect existing OpenCode installation and offer to migrate sessions
Download MLX embedding model (macOS only, ~273MB)
Index your project for code search

Connect Provider

Choose how to connect to LLM:

Option 1: Use Existing Subscription (No Extra Cost)

# Claude Code (Claude Pro/Max)
tau auth login claude-code

# GitHub Copilot
tau auth login github-copilot

# Gemini CLI (Google AI)
tau auth login gemini-cli

# Codex CLI
tau auth login codex

No API costs — uses your existing subscription through CLI integration.

Option 2: Use API Key

# Set API key
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxx
# or
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxx
# or
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=xxx

# Or store securely in keyring
tau auth set anthropic

Data Locations

Database	`~/.local/share/tau/tau.db`
Config	`~/.config/tau/config.toml`
MLX Models	`~/.local/share/tau/mlx_models/`
Project Index	`.tau/index/` (per-project)
Project Config	`.tau/config.toml` (per-project)

Verify Installation

# Check version
tau --version

# Check providers
tau models list

# Run TUI
tau

OpenCode Migration

If you have an existing OpenCode installation, TAU can import your sessions:

# Auto-detected on first run, or manually:
tau import --from opencode

# What gets imported:
# ✓ Projects
# ✓ Sessions
# ✓ Messages & parts
# ✓ MCP server configs
# ✓ Provider API keys