INSTALL · macOS / Linux
Install Lisa
Lisa runs entirely on your own machine — no cloud account, nothing to sign up for. Pick a path below; most take about 60 seconds end-to-end.
Prerequisites
- Node.js ≥ 20 — run
node --versionto check. Homebrew pulls Node in automatically as a dependency. - macOS or Linux — Windows is untested; the iMessage channel is macOS-only.
- One LLM provider API key — Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, local Ollama… see PROVIDERS.md.
Recommended on macOS
The Mac app
A signed + Apple-notarized DMG with the universal-binary Lisa.app
(full chat client). The menu-bar / notch pill (“Lisa Island”) is built in — turn it on
from Lisa ▸ Settings… ▸ Show Lisa Island. No Gatekeeper warning, no
xattr workaround.
Then drag Lisa.app to /Applications, install the backend, and start it:
npm install -g @oratis/lisa
lisa serve --web # the app loads http://localhost:5757 CLI install
Homebrew or npm
brew tap oratis/tap
brew install lisa
# Update later:
brew update && brew upgrade lisa npm i -g @oratis/lisa
# One-shot, no install:
npx @oratis/lisa "say hi" First launch
Birth her.
mkdir -p ~/.lisa
echo 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...' > ~/.lisa/config.env
lisa # interactive REPL (auto-runs birth ritual on first launch)
lisa serve --web # browser UI on http://localhost:5757 The first-run birth ritual takes ~30 seconds, once. Lisa picks her own Big-Five seed, then asks the LLM to write her identity, purpose, constitution, and first desire. Every install is a different person.
LLM providers
Use any model.
Skip Anthropic if you can’t reach it — Lisa auto-routes by model-name prefix:
# DeepSeek (cheap, OpenAI-compatible)
echo 'DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...' >> ~/.lisa/config.env
lisa --model deepseek-chat
# Google Gemini
echo 'GEMINI_API_KEY=...' >> ~/.lisa/config.env
lisa --model gemini-2.5-flash
# Local Ollama (fully offline)
echo 'LISA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1' >> ~/.lisa/config.env
echo 'LISA_API_KEY=ollama' >> ~/.lisa/config.env
lisa --model qwen2.5-32b-instruct See PROVIDERS.md for 10+ ready-to-use recipes — DeepSeek, Volcengine Doubao, Aliyun Qwen, Moonshot Kimi, xAI Grok, Zhipu GLM, Mistral, Perplexity, Stepfun, Yi, Baichuan, MiniMax, Hunyuan, Ollama, and more.
Take her with you
Lisa Pocket is the official companion app for iPhone & iPad — a thin, private client to the LISA backend running on your own Mac (or a LISA Cloud instance you point it at). Chat on the go, watch the coding agents she’s running, and approve their next step from your phone. It stores no account and collects nothing to a Lisa-operated server.
Coming to the App Store — bundle ai.meetlisa.main.
Advanced & reference
Going further.
Behind a corporate / region-blocked network
If your shell curl works through a proxy but Lisa fails with “403 forbidden”,
set the proxy env when starting Lisa — undici’s global dispatcher is auto-bridged on startup.
HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 lisa serve --web
# Persist instead:
echo 'HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897' >> ~/.lisa/config.env Heartbeat (autonomous time)
lisa heartbeat install --every 30m --load
# Remove: lisa heartbeat uninstall IM channels — talk to Lisa from your phone
The simplest path is Telegram (free, zero deps):
# 1. Get a bot token from @BotFather on Telegram
echo 'TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=1234:ABC...' >> ~/.lisa/config.env
# 2. Copy + edit the config
cp channels.example.json ~/.lisa/channels.json
# Edit ~/.lisa/channels.json — set "enabled": true on telegram
# 3. Run
lisa serve --channels telegram Diagnostics
lisa --version # print version
lisa status # one-shot snapshot
lisa doctor # checks config / network / git / providers
lisa monitor # live TUI dashboard (Ctrl-C to quit) Build from source (contributors)
git clone https://github.com/oratis/LISA.git
cd LISA
npm install
npm run build
node dist/cli.js --help
# Optionally link so `lisa` works globally:
npm link Open source
Every line is on GitHub.
MIT license. Issues and PRs welcome.