Installation

Get started quickly with aider-install

If you already have python 3.8-3.13 installed, you can get started quickly like this:

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

# Change directory into your code base
cd /to/your/project

# Work with DeepSeek via DeepSeek's API
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=your-key-goes-here

# Work with Claude 3.5 Sonnet via Anthropic's API
aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=your-key-goes-here

# Work with GPT-4o via OpenAI's API
aider --model gpt-4o --api-key openai=your-key-goes-here

# Work with Sonnet via OpenRouter's API
aider --model openrouter/anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet --api-key openrouter=your-key-goes-here

# Work with DeepSeek via OpenRouter's API
aider --model openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-chat --api-key openrouter=your-key-goes-here

This will install aider in its own separate python environment. If needed, aider-install will also install a separate version of python 3.12 to use with aider.

Once aider is installed, there are also some optional install steps.

See the usage instructions to start coding with aider.

One-liners

These one-liners will install aider, along with python 3.12 if needed. They are based on the uv installers.

Windows

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://aider.chat/install.ps1 | iex"

Mac & Linux

Use curl to download the script and execute it with sh:

curl -LsSf https://aider.chat/install.sh | sh

If your system doesn’t have curl, you can use wget:

wget -qO- https://aider.chat/install.sh | sh

Install with uv

You can install aider with uv:

python -m pip install uv  # If you need to install uv
uv tool install --force --python python3.12 aider-chat@latest

This will install uv using your existing python version 3.8-3.13, and use it to install aider. If needed, uv will automatically install a separate python 3.12 to use with aider.

Also see the docs on other methods for installing uv itself.

Install with pipx

You can install aider with pipx:

python -m pip install pipx  # If you need to install pipx
pipx install aider-chat

You can use pipx to install aider with python versions 3.9-3.12.

Also see the docs on other methods for installing pipx itself.

Other install methods

You can install aider with the methods described below, but one of the above methods is usually safer.

Install with pip

If you install with pip, you should consider using a virtual environment to keep aider’s dependencies separated.

You can use pip to install aider with python versions 3.9-3.12.

python -m pip install -U --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed aider-chat

In some environments you may get “aider command not found” errors. You can try python -m aider or see here for more info.

Installing with package managers

It’s best to install aider using one of methods recommended above. While aider is available in a number of system package managers, they often install aider with incorrect dependencies.

Next steps…

There are some optional install steps you could consider. See the usage instructions to start coding with aider.


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