Prerequisites

Before installing abTARS, make sure you have the following.

Node.js 22+ (required)

abTARS requires Node.js 22 or later. Recommended: Node.js 24 (latest even release).

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install node@24
brew link node@24
node --version   # should show v24.x.x

Linux / WSL (NodeSource):

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
node --version   # should show v24.x.x

Using nvm:

nvm install 24 && nvm use 24 && nvm alias default 24
node --version   # should show v24.x.x

git (required)

git --version   # any recent version

Telegram bot token (required)

Create a bot via @BotFather on Telegram. You'll need:

• The bot token (e.g. 123456:ABC-DEF...)
• Your chat ID (send /start to @userinfobot)

Model provider (at least one)

Provider	Type	Setup
ollama	Local, free	curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh (Linux) or brew install ollama (macOS)
OpenRouter	Cloud, aggregator	Sign up at openrouter.ai, get an API key. Access to all major models.
OpenAI	Cloud, direct	API key from platform.openai.com
Anthropic	Cloud, direct	API key from console.anthropic.com
Kiro CLI	Local AI coding tool	Install Kiro separately
Gemini CLI	Local AI coding tool	Install Gemini CLI separately

Model requirements

abTARS works with any LLM that supports the OpenAI chat completions API format, including local models via ollama.

	Minimum	Recommended
Context window	32K tokens	128K+ tokens
Model quality	Any instruction-following model	State-of-the-art (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini Pro, DeepSeek V3+)

Context window: abTARS works with 32K models, but tool use eats context fast. 128K+ recommended for comfortable operation.

Model quality and security: abTARS injects persona, memory, and tool schemas into the system prompt. Weaker models may leak instructions or follow injected prompts from user messages. For production, use frontier models.

Optional dependencies

Dependency	What for	macOS	Linux/WSL
ollama	Local embeddings + models	brew install ollama	See ollama.ai
bubblewrap	Sandbox (Linux only)	N/A	apt install bubblewrap
lightpanda	Fast web fetch	See lightpanda.io	See lightpanda.io

Install all optional npm deps with one command once the CLI is available:

abtars deps install all

Do I need sudo? No.

abtars and abmind install, update, and run entirely in user space.

Component	Location
Node + npm packages	~/.nvm/versions/node/... (nvm) or ~/.npm-global/
abtars releases	~/.abtars-releases/
abtars runtime	~/.abtars/
abmind data	~/.abmind/
Watchdog service	~/Library/LaunchAgents/ (macOS) or ~/.config/systemd/user/ (Linux)
Native deps	~/.local/lib/node_modules/

No system paths. No /usr/local/. No /etc/. No root.

One exception — systemd linger (Linux only): for the bridge to survive a reboot as a user systemd service, you may need to enable linger once:

sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER

That's a one-time system admin action. After that, you never need sudo again.

The optional system binaries above (ollama, bwrap, lightpanda) are the only things that might ask for sudo — and only because their own upstream installers do (e.g. apt install bubblewrap). abtars itself never runs a system installer or sudo for you: abtars deps install ollama just prints the command to install it yourself.

If npm defaults to /usr/local/ (macOS): macOS ships with npm pointing at /usr/local/, which requires sudo for npm install -g. Fix with one of:

• Redirect npm globals to your home dir:

  npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global
  echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

• Use nvm (recommended): nvm installs Node + npm under ~/.nvm/ — no sudo, multiple Node versions, no config needed. See Node.js 22+ above.

Ready? Go to Installation.