Download BOAT
One command installs the boat CLI. It sets up everything else the first time you run boat start.
curl -fsSL https://boat-annotation.com/install.sh | sh- macOS on Apple silicon (M1 or newer)
- Models run on Metal (MPS) or the CPU
- Disk space for the models you choose, about 0.5–8 GB each
macOS uses a background supervisor and does not start BOAT at login unless you run boat service enable.
curl -fsSL https://boat-annotation.com/install.sh | sh- Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 on x86_64
- Optional NVIDIA GPU with CUDA 12.6, or 12.8 for Blackwell
- Disk space for the models you choose, about 0.5–8 GB each
On Linux, BOAT registers a user systemd service and starts at login by default when systemd is available.
Windows is not supported. Run BOAT on a Mac or Linux machine and open it from your browser.
What the installer does
Short, readable and verified
It is a plain shell script you can read before running. Here is everything it does.
- 01
Checks your platform
Supported OS and CPU architecture, before anything is downloaded.
- 02
Downloads the release
The latest version from GitHub Releases, or the one you pin.
- 03
Verifies it
SHA-256 checksum and Sigstore signature against the release workflow.
- 04
Installs boat
Into ~/.local/bin. No root, no system packages.
Then
Start, open, add a model
Other ways to install
Pin a version, follow the beta channel or build from source.
Pin a version or use beta
curl -fsSL https://boat-annotation.com/install.sh | BOAT_CHANNEL=beta shPin a release with BOAT_VERSION=<version>, change the install folder with BOAT_INSTALL_DIR, or keep everything under one directory with BOAT_HOME.
Download manually
Every release ships per-platform archives with SHA-256 checksums and Sigstore bundles.
GitHub Releases