Installation

HUME ships as one archive: the editor plus the themes, plugins and language definitions it reads at runtime. Download it, extract it, and run it. You add syntax highlighting and language servers later, on demand, only for the languages you use.

Download

Grab the latest release from the releases page. Most people want the newest tagged version. A nightly build carries the newest changes, but it may be unstable or contain half-finished features.

Platform	Archive
macOS (Apple Silicon)	hume-*-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
Linux (x86_64, glibc 2.28+)	hume-*-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Windows (x86_64)	hume-*-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip

macOS / Linux

Extract and run:

tar xzf hume-*.tar.gz
./hume-*/bin/hume

Or copy it into ~/.local for a single-user install (no sudo needed):

mkdir -p ~/.local && cp -R hume-*/bin hume-*/share ~/.local/

Then make sure ~/.local/bin is on your $PATH:

bash

# Add to ~/.profile if not already there
case ":$PATH:" in
  *":$HOME/.local/bin:"*) ;;
  *) export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" ;;
esac

zsh

# Add to ~/.zshrc if not already there
case ":$PATH:" in
  *":$HOME/.local/bin:"*) ;;
  *) export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" ;;
esac

fish

# fish_add_path skips duplicates
fish_add_path $HOME/.local/bin

Or copy it into /usr/local/ for a system-wide install:

cp -R hume-*/bin hume-*/share /usr/local/

macOS: "cannot be opened" dialog

The binaries aren't signed. If you extract the archive by double-clicking it in Finder instead of using tar as above, Gatekeeper may refuse to run them with a "cannot be opened" dialog. Clear the quarantine flag from the whole extracted folder once, and it won't come back:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine hume-*

Windows

Extract the .zip, then run hume.exe from inside the extracted folder, or add that folder to your PATH.

Keep the folder intact

On every platform, keep the whole extracted folder intact. HUME finds its runtime files (themes, plugins, language definitions) relative to the hume binary:

• macOS/Linux: ../share/hume/runtime/ next to bin/hume.
• Windows: runtime/ next to hume.exe.

A binary moved out on its own can't find them.

Check it works

hume --version

prints something like hume x.y.z (a nightly or source build adds its commit, as in hume x.y.z-f460770). The same string is available inside the editor with :version.

Building from source

Prerequisites: a Rust toolchain. Install one from rustup.rs.

git clone https://github.com/cvlmtg/HUME
cd HUME
cargo build --release
./target/release/hume

Run it from the repository root, as above, and HUME picks up the runtime/ directory there.

cargo install needs one extra step

cargo install --git https://github.com/cvlmtg/HUME hume-editor installs the binary but not the runtime files, so themes, plugins, :tutor, and syntax highlighting won't work. Point HUME at a copy of the runtime/ directory to fix it:

export HUME_RUNTIME=/path/to/HUME/runtime

Syntax highlighting

HUME highlights code with tree-sitter and downloads prebuilt grammars on demand instead of shipping them. That needs curl and tar on your PATH. See Syntax Highlighting for the walkthrough.

Terminal compatibility

HUME targets modern terminals, but it starts on any terminal and works with what it finds. It works best in a terminal that supports:

• 24-bit true color. HUME always sends colors as RGB. Terminals without true color show approximate or wrong colors, but HUME still runs.
• Synchronized output. HUME uses it once per frame to avoid tearing. Terminals that don't recognise it ignore it harmlessly.
• The kitty keyboard protocol. HUME requests it at startup and uses it whenever the terminal answers. It unlocks a few extra key combinations, which the manual marks "kitty only"; everything else works without it. While the protocol is on, the statusline shows a cat (ᓚᘏᗢ).

Terminals that support the kitty keyboard protocol:

• kitty, Ghostty, iTerm2, Alacritty, Rio, and Warp
• foot, on Linux
• Windows Terminal 1.25 or later, which includes WSL and Git Bash shells running inside it
• WezTerm, once you turn it on (see below)

In iTerm2, Settings → Profiles → Keys → Allow application to change how keys are reported must be checked.

Terminal.app, GNOME Terminal and other terminals built on VTE, Konsole, and mintty (Git Bash's own window) don't support the protocol, and neither does tmux, even inside a terminal that does. Use Extend mode (e) there instead of the Ctrl one-shot extends.

WezTerm leaves the protocol off by default. To turn it on, add this line to your .wezterm.lua:

config.enable_kitty_keyboard = true

WezTerm on macOS doesn't send Ctrl-| correctly, so HUME never receives it. To make it work, add this line to the config.keys table in your .wezterm.lua:

{ key = '|', mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT', action = wezterm.action.SendString '\x1b[92:124;6u' },