The recommended install path downloads a prebuilt `tea` release for x86_64 Linux or Apple Silicon macOS, verifies its checksum, and installs it to `~/.local/bin`.
```bash
curl -fsSL https://tea-lang.dev/install | bash
tea --version
```
Tea also needs a local C toolchain to build executables while running scripts or `tea build`:
- Apple Silicon macOS: `xcode-select --install`
- Linux: install `clang` with your package manager
Intel Macs should build from source instead.
If you need a source build for local development, use the Rust/Bun/LLVM workflow instead:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/bentruyman/tea-lang.git
cd tea-lang
./scripts/setup-worktree.sh
cargo build --release
make install
```
`make install` builds a bundled `tea` binary for local use. If you only run `cargo build --release -p tea-cli`, that developer build still expects `cargo` to be available when Tea compiles programs.
If you’d rather skip the install step, you can run Tea directly from the repo during development:
```bash
cargo run -p tea-cli -- examples/echo/main.tea hello tea
```