Overcast is alpha — behaviour and APIs may change between releases. Pin your version and read the changelog before upgrading.

overcast

Getting Started

Install Overcast

One line installs the native binary on macOS, Linux or Windows: what the installer does, every flag and variable, the Docker images, and installing by hand.

One line installs the overcast binary for your machine and puts it on your PATH.

macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://overcast.sh/install.sh | sh

Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://overcast.sh/install.ps1 | iex

Then start it and point a client at it:

overcast serve
eval "$(overcast env)"        # PowerShell: overcast env | iex
aws s3 mb s3://hello-overcast

The web console is on http://localhost:4567 and the AWS-compatible API on port 4566. The CLI reference covers the rest of the commands.

What the installer does

It works out your OS and CPU, downloads the matching binary from the GitHub release, checks it against the release’s SHA256SUMS, and renames the verified file into a directory that belongs to you. It never asks a question and never uses sudo or elevation, so the same line works in a terminal, in CI and in a Dockerfile. The script is plain text: read it before you run it at install.sh and install.ps1.

macOS and LinuxWindows
Installs to~/.local/bin%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\overcast\bin
PATHprints the line for your shell; --modify-path writes itadds the directory to your user PATH; -NoModifyPath skips that
Verifies withsha256sum, shasum or opensslthe .NET SHA-256 implementation
Versionthe release the script shipped withthe same

Run the same line again to upgrade. An install that is already at the requested version is left alone.

Choosing what to install

Flags go after sh -s -- on Unix. irm | iex cannot take parameters, so on Windows every choice is also an environment variable, set before the line runs; the parameters work when the script is saved to disk first.

curl -fsSL https://overcast.sh/install.sh | sh -s -- --slim --version v0.0.1-alpha.39
$env:OVERCAST_INSTALL_FLAVOR = "slim"; irm https://overcast.sh/install.ps1 | iex
ChoiceUnix flagWindows parameterVariable
A specific release--version <tag>-Version <tag>OVERCAST_INSTALL_VERSION
The headless daemon, overcastd--slim-SlimOVERCAST_INSTALL_FLAVOR=slim
Both binaries--both-BothOVERCAST_INSTALL_FLAVOR=both
Another directory--dir <path>-Dir <path>OVERCAST_INSTALL_DIR
PATH handling--modify-path-NoModifyPathOVERCAST_INSTALL_MODIFY_PATH=1 or 0
See the plan, change nothing--dry-run-DryRunOVERCAST_INSTALL_DRY_RUN=1 (Windows)
Remove it--uninstall-UninstallOVERCAST_INSTALL_UNINSTALL=1 (Windows)

overcastd is the slim build: the same emulator and the same commands without the web console. It is the one to put in CI. The version tag works with or without its leading v.

Docker instead

The images need no installer. The full image serves the console on 4567; the slim image is the emulator alone.

docker run --rm -p 4566:4566 -p 4567:4567 ghcr.io/overcast-sh/overcast:latest
docker run --rm -p 4566:4566 ghcr.io/overcast-sh/overcast-slim:latest

Compose, Testcontainers and the image tags are covered in Testcontainers and on the downloads page.

By hand

Every release lists its binaries with their checksums: overcast and overcastd for Linux and macOS on amd64 and arm64, and for Windows on amd64. Download one, verify it against SHA256SUMS, make it executable and put it on your PATH. A copy of each install script is attached to the release too, pinned to that release, for an install that must not move with the website.

Windows on ARM has no arm64 build yet; the installer puts the amd64 binary in place, which Windows 11 runs under its x64 emulation, and says so.