BOAT
Download

Get started

Quickstart

Install BOAT, start it and auto-label your first image in about five minutes.

This guide takes you from a clean machine to a running BOAT with an AI model in the editor.

1. Install the CLI

Run the installer on macOS (Apple silicon) or Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 (x86_64):

curl -fsSL https://boat-annotation.com/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the latest release, verifies its checksum and Sigstore signature, and installs boat to ~/.local/bin. If that directory is not on your PATH yet, the installer prints the export line to add.

2. Start BOAT

boat start

The first start creates safe defaults: the web app listens on 127.0.0.1:7234, no model is downloaded, and on Linux, autostart is enabled through user systemd when it is available. Open the app with:

boat open

Prefer to choose ports, the default device and autostart first? Run the optional guided setup before starting:

boat setup

3. Create an account

Sign up in the browser with a User ID and password. User IDs are case-sensitive and use only English letters and numbers. You can also create accounts from the terminal, even while BOAT is stopped:

boat user create Alice

4. Install a model

Pick a model from the model library. If you are not sure, start with the top recommendation:

boat model install sam3-litetext

BOAT resolves the default tag, downloads the code archive for your platform and the weights, builds an isolated runtime and runs a real inference to validate the install. No restart is needed. Within about 15 seconds, or as soon as you switch back to the browser tab, the model's tools appear in the editor sidebar.

5. Label with AI

  1. Create a project and choose an annotation type, for example Instance Segmentation.
  2. Upload images.
  3. Open an image, pick Text Prompt in the sidebar, type a class name such as apple and press Enter.
  4. Review the preview and apply the masks you want to keep.

Where to go next

↑↓ navigate↵ open