Installation

The quick installer automatically sets up git, uv, and Python (via uv). The frontend bundle is downloaded prebuilt from the latest GitHub release, and the backend is checked out at that same release tag so the two stay in sync — end users do not need Node.js or pnpm.

:::tip Which install do I want?

• Quick Install (this page) — you just want to run CodefyUI.
• Dev Install — you want to edit the code or contribute (manual uv + pnpm setup with hot reload). :::

Quick Install

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/treeleaves30760/CodefyUI/main/install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/treeleaves30760/CodefyUI/main/install.ps1 | iex"

By default this installs to ~/CodefyUI (macOS/Linux) or %USERPROFILE%\CodefyUI (Windows). Override with the CODEFYUI_DIR environment variable.

On Windows, install.ps1 uses winget to install git if it's missing. winget ships with Windows 11 and recent Windows 10 via the "App Installer" package.

The installer places a cdui launcher at ~/.local/bin/cdui (Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\cdui.cmd). Restart your terminal, then from any directory:

cdui start

Open http://localhost:8000. A single uvicorn process serves both the API and the prebuilt React app. cdui start runs in the background by default — you can close the terminal and the server keeps running; manage it with cdui status and cdui stop. Add --foreground (-f) to run it attached and stop with Ctrl+C.

note

This quick start assumes the default PyTorch build, which works on every platform (CPU / Apple Silicon MPS). For a specific NVIDIA CUDA version, AMD ROCm, or to verify GPU detection, see GPU & Device Setup.

Install flags & environment variables

Both install.sh/install.ps1 and cdui install (after the first install) accept the same choices, either as CLI flags or pre-set environment variables. Defaults are interactive when stdin is a TTY, and the safe choices otherwise.

Flag	Env var	Values	Purpose
--gpu <choice>	CODEFYUI_GPU	auto / cu118 / cu121 / cu124 / cu128 / rocm6.1 / rocm6.2 / cpu / mps / skip	Select the PyTorch wheel index. auto detects via nvidia-smi / rocm-smi / Apple Silicon. skip installs no torch (advanced).
--dev / --no-dev	CODEFYUI_DEV	1 / 0	Install the [dev] extra (pytest, httpx, httpx-ws). Required for cdui test. Off for end users, on for contributors.
--yes	—	—	Accept all defaults non-interactively (CI / headless).
--lang <code>	CODEFYUI_LANG	en / zh-TW	Localise the installer prompts.
—	CODEFYUI_DIR	path	Install directory (default ~/CodefyUI).
—	CODEFYUI_RELEASE_TAG	tag	Pin the frontend bundle to a specific release (default latest).
—	CODEFYUI_FORCE_BUILD	1	Skip the prebuilt-dist download and build locally with pnpm (tracks main).

Production vs developer mode

• cdui start — single uvicorn on :8000 serves the prebuilt frontend. No Node needed. This is the default end-user mode.
• cdui dev — Vite dev server on :5173 with HMR + uvicorn on :8000. Requires Node 24+ and pnpm. Use this when editing frontend code — see Dev Install.
• cdui build — rebuild frontend/dist locally (also needs Node + pnpm).

See the full list of launcher commands in CLI Commands.

Verify it works

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/health

This should return something like {"status":"ok","nodes_loaded":94,"presets_loaded":3} (the nodes_loaded count grows with each release — just confirm it's non-zero).

Then open the frontend, load the Train CNN on MNIST example, and click Run. You should see training progress appear in the bottom panel.

Updating

cdui update

Updates to the latest release (prebuilt path) or pulls main (when building from source) and re-syncs the frontend.