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Install on macOS (Homebrew)

Install ~alter’s always-on daemon on macOS via Homebrew. The Formula wraps the upstream truealter PyPI distribution and registers a launchd plist named com.truealter.alter-runtime.

What you get

  • •alter-runtime binary on $PATH.
  • •launchd plist com.truealter.alter-runtime.
  • •Default config root at ~/Library/Application Support/alter/. Runtime socket falls back to the macOS DARWIN_USER_DIR when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is unset.

Install

The Formula ships from the official tap at true-alter/homebrew-tap. Tap once, then install:

bash
brew tap true-alter/tap
brew install alter-runtime

Need the CLI too? The alter CLI is distributed via npm and works alongside the daemon. See the npm install guide for details.

Start the daemon

bash
brew services start alter-runtime

Verify

bash
alter-runtime --version
brew services info alter-runtime

Cross-platform unity

However a person installs alter-runtime, the runtime they get is the same runtime everyone else gets: same socket protocol, same ~handle resolution, same DNS-TXT discovery, same federation endpoints. macOS uses launchd rather than systemd; the plist is a local-idiom optimisation, not a substrate divergence. A macOS user federates with users on any other channel identically.

Next steps

Getting started

Bind a ~handle and make your first authenticated request.

~handle protocol

How ~handle resolution works on top of the running daemon.