Dependency versions

Aider expects to be installed via pip or pipx, which will install correct versions of all of its required dependencies.

If you’ve been linked to this doc from a GitHub issue, or if aider is reporting ImportErrors it is likely that your aider install is using incorrect dependencies.

Install with pipx

If you are having dependency problems you should consider installing aider using pipx. This will ensure that aider is installed in its own python environment, with the correct set of dependencies.

Try re-installing cleanly:

pipx uninstall aider-chat
pipx install aider-chat

Package managers like Homebrew, AUR, ports

Package managers often install aider with the wrong dependencies, leading to import errors and other problems.

The recommended way to install aider is with pip. Be sure to use the --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed switch so that the correct versions of dependencies will be installed.

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

A very safe way is to install aider using pipx, which will ensure it is installed in a stand alone virtual environment.

Dependency versions matter

Aider pins its dependencies and is tested to work with those specific versions. If you are installing aider with pip (rather than pipx), you should be careful about upgrading or downgrading the python packages that aider uses.

In particular, be careful with the packages with pinned versions noted at the end of aider’s requirements.in file. These versions are pinned because aider is known not to work with the latest versions of these libraries.

Also be wary of upgrading litellm, as it changes versions frequently and sometimes introduces bugs or backwards incompatible changes.

Replit

You can pip install -U aider-chat on replit.

Or you can install aider with pipx as follows:

To use aider with pipx on replit, you can run these commands in the replit shell:

pip install pipx
pipx run aider-chat ...normal aider args...

If you install aider with pipx on replit and try and run it as just aider it will crash with a missing libstdc++.so.6 library.