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Install

Put Flow on your computer, keep it up to date, and take it off again.

Table of contents

What you need

  • Linux, macOS, or Windows through WSL.
  • git, node, gh, GitHub's command-line tool, and Claude Code 2.1.287 or later. Flow never installs them.
  • A GitHub account, where Flow keeps a private backup of your Flow home.

flow doctor --prereq checks them.

Install Flow

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Adrian333Dev/flow/main/install.sh | bash

The line downloads Flow into ~/.flow/repos/flow/ and runs flow install. Already downloaded it yourself? Run node <clone>/scripts/flow.js install.

flow install then:

  1. Signs gh in to GitHub, with a token where the browser sign-in fails, as it often does on WSL.
  2. Asks this computer's name, such as pc-wsl. Your other computers know it by this name.
  3. Connects your Flow home, ~/.flow/, where Flow keeps your rules, notes, settings and tickets. The first computer creates a private GitHub repository for it, flow-home, and the next ones download it: Sync between computers.
  4. Saves a copy of every file it is about to change, so flow restore can put it back.
  5. Links Flow's skills, rules and scripts into place: Files lists them.
  6. Opens the setup session.

A failed check stops the install before anything is made, and says what to fix. Running flow install again is always safe.

The setup session

A Claude Code session that reads what your computer already holds: your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, skills, plugins and ~/.claude/settings.json. It writes every change into one form, migration.md, and stops. Nothing outside ~/.flow/ changes before you approve the form.

Your choices come first. A ticked box goes ahead, and an unticked one leaves that thing as it is:

## ❌ Removed: works against Flow's rules

- [x] **tdd** skill: deleted. It plans and tests every change, which Flow's steps already do.

## ⏸️ Switched off, except in the projects that use it

- [x] **supabase** plugin: knows the Supabase database service. Switched off everywhere, and `flow init` switches it on in a project that uses it.

Under them, ✅ Set up with no choice lists what Flow sets up whatever you tick, and the form ends with every file it changes.

A plugin only some projects use costs context everywhere else, so the form switches it off, and each project switches it back on: New project.

After your yes, the session writes your rules to ~/.flow/CLAUDE.md, from Flow's template and your old rule files. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md becomes a link to that file, and Flow's keys go into ~/.claude/settings.json beside yours.

  • Claude Code asks once before editing its own settings. Answer allow Claude to edit its own settings for this session.
  • flow refuses most commands until the setup finishes. flow install again carries a stopped setup on.

Quit and start claude again once it ends, then run flow doctor to check the install.

Update Flow

A session tells you when your computer is behind. Then type, in a terminal:

$ flow update
Flow was already at its newest commit.
Flow is up to date: this machine is at entry 1, and so is ~/code/shop.

It downloads the newest Flow, then opens an update session for your computer and for the project you are in, where either is behind. Each session writes a form like the setup's. A line you added to a file Flow wrote is kept. Start claude again once it ends.

Take Flow off

Flow saved your files as they were before it: your computer's at the first install, each project's at its first flow init. Your notes and tickets in ~/.flow/ are never touched by a restore.

  • flow restore project puts back the project you are in.
  • flow restore machine puts back your computer, and offers each project too.
  • flow uninstall puts back your computer and every project, then deletes ~/.flow/ and Flow. It refuses while ~/.flow/ holds work flow sync has not backed up. Your flow-home repository on GitHub stays.

Each writes ~/.flow/restore.md, one box per path, and waits for you to type restore or uninstall:

- [x] `.flow/`: deleted, with every ticket in it. Tickets sent to GitHub stay on the project's flow branch.
- [ ] `CLAUDE.md`: deleted. It was not there before Flow.

Untick a path to keep it as it is now. Only you can run these 3 commands: Commands.