Install dotbot on Windows, macOS, and Linux

dotbot is a pure PowerShell tool with no runtime dependencies beyond PowerShell itself and Git. There is no npm, pip, or Docker involved. The same installation approach works on Windows, macOS, and Linux — pick the method that fits your workflow.

Prerequisites

Before installing dotbot, make sure you have the following:

Requirement	Minimum version	Download
PowerShell	7.0+	aka.ms/powershell
Git	Any	git-scm.com/downloads
AI CLI (at least one)	Latest	Claude CLI, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI

You can verify your PowerShell version by running $PSVersionTable.PSVersion in a terminal.

Install dotbot

One-liner (recommended)
PowerShell Gallery
Scoop (Windows)
Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
Git clone

The fastest way to install dotbot is with the remote installer. It fetches the latest release from GitHub, extracts it, and runs the install script automatically:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andresharpe/dotbot/main/install-remote.ps1 | iex

The installer:

Downloads the latest release archive for your platform (.zip on Windows, .tar.gz on macOS/Linux)
Extracts it to a temporary directory
Copies runtime files to ~/dotbot
Creates the dotbot CLI wrapper at ~/dotbot/bin/dotbot.ps1
Adds ~/dotbot/bin to your PATH
Installs the powershell-yaml module from PSGallery if it is not already present

After the installer finishes, restart your terminal.

Install dotbot as a PowerShell module from PSGallery:

Install-Module dotbot -Scope CurrentUser

This installs the module for your current user only and does not require administrator privileges.

If you use Scoop as your Windows package manager, add the dotbot bucket and install:

scoop bucket add dotbot https://github.com/andresharpe/scoop-dotbot
scoop install dotbot

If you use Homebrew, tap the dotbot formula and install:

brew tap andresharpe/dotbot
brew install dotbot

To install directly from source, clone the repository and run the install script:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/andresharpe/dotbot dotbot-install
cd dotbot-install
pwsh install.ps1

The install script detects whether it is running from the dotbot repo and performs a global installation automatically.

After installing

Restart your terminal

Restart your terminal so the dotbot command is available on your PATH.

Verify the installation

Confirm dotbot installed correctly:

dotbot status

This shows the global installation path, version, and whether the current directory has a project initialized with dotbot.

Update dotbot

To update dotbot to the latest version at any time, run:

dotbot update

Windows execution policy

If you downloaded dotbot as a ZIP file on Windows, PowerShell may block the scripts due to the execution policy. Run the following command before installing:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

This allows locally created scripts and signed remote scripts to run, without changing the system-wide policy.

Recommended MCP servers

Once dotbot is installed, consider adding these MCP servers to your AI tool for a better development experience.

Playwright MCP

Adds browser automation tools to your AI sessions. Useful for UI testing, screenshot capture, and verifying rendered output.

Repository: github.com/anthropics/anthropic-quickstarts/tree/main/mcp-playwright

Context7 MCP

Provides up-to-date library documentation lookup during AI sessions. Reduces hallucination on API usage and keeps the AI grounded in current docs.

Repository: github.com/upstash/context7

Both servers can be added to any MCP-compatible AI client using the same mcpServers config block you use for dotbot. See Configure the dotbot MCP server for Claude and Warp for configuration details.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Dashboard

MCP Server

Install dotbot on Windows, macOS, and Linux

Prerequisites

Install dotbot

After installing

Windows execution policy

Recommended MCP servers

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Dashboard

MCP Server

​Prerequisites

​Install dotbot

​After installing

​Windows execution policy

​Recommended MCP servers

Prerequisites

Install dotbot

After installing

Windows execution policy

Recommended MCP servers