repowiseInstall repowise
Install the repowise CLI on macOS, Linux, or Windows via pip or uv. Verify, upgrade, switch versions, or uninstall. Every step.
The repowise CLI is a Python package. You can install it with pip,
or (recommended) with uv, which puts
the binary into an isolated environment without touching your system
Python.
Before installing, make sure you've got Python 3.11+ and Git 2.30+.
Install
uv tool install repowiseuv tool install puts the binary in an isolated, uv-managed venv on
PATH. No conflicts with system Python, no requirements.txt to
maintain, fastest install path.
If you don't have uv yet:
# macOS / Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"pip install repowiseInstalls into your active Python environment. Fine for project-scoped installs (in a venv); not ideal for a global system install, since there's no isolation from your other Python tools.
If you see a Defaulting to user installation message, the binary may
land in ~/.local/bin (Linux/macOS) or
%APPDATA%\Python\Scripts (Windows). Add that to PATH.
pipx install repowiseLike uv tool install, this isolates the binary in its own venv. Use it
if you already standardise on pipx for CLI tools.
Verify
repowise --versionYou should see something like repowise 0.6.0. If command not found,
your PATH is missing the install location. See
Troubleshooting → command not found.
Optional extras
Every LLM provider works out of the box. The Anthropic, OpenAI,
Google, and LiteLLM SDKs are base dependencies, so there is nothing
extra to install to use Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama, or any
OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Just set the API key. See
Environment variables. A provider is
optional: repowise init runs and produces a full wiki without one.
Two extras exist, and neither is needed for a normal install:
| Extra | What it adds | When you want it |
|---|---|---|
postgres | pgvector + asyncpg | Storing the index in PostgreSQL instead of the default SQLite. See Configuration. |
graph-extra | graspologic | Leiden community detection. Without it, repowise falls back to Louvain via networkx, which is already bundled. |
uv tool install 'repowise[postgres]'
uv tool install 'repowise[graph-extra]'pip install 'repowise[postgres]'
pip install 'repowise[graph-extra]'Upgrade
uv tool upgrade repowisepip install --upgrade repowisepipx upgrade repowiseRun repowise --version again to confirm, then run repowise update in your
repo so the new build picks up your existing index. Upgrades keep that index
working (no reindex in the normal case), and a full reindex is only ever
recommended, never forced. See Upgrading for the full flow.
Not sure if you're up to date? repowise doctor
prints a CLI version row that compares your installed CLI against PyPI and
suggests the right upgrade command for your install method. This is handy when
an MCP client is silently running an older repowise from your PATH.
Pin to a specific version
uv tool install repowise==0.6.0
# or
pip install repowise==0.6.0The full release history is on PyPI.
Uninstall
uv tool uninstall repowisepip uninstall repowisepipx uninstall repowiseThe CLI is gone, but your .repowise/ directories are untouched.
Delete them by hand if you want to reclaim the disk space:
# inside each indexed repo
rm -rf .repowise/Editable install (for contributors)
Hacking on repowise itself? Clone the OSS repo and install with uv
in editable mode:
git clone https://github.com/repowise-dev/repowise
cd repowise
uv sync --all-packages
uv run repowise --versionOr activate the venv uv sync created:
source .venv/bin/activate
repowise --helpSee CONTRIBUTING.md in the OSS repo for the full developer setup, including how to add a language and how to add a new LLM provider.
What's next
Index your first repo: head to the
Quickstart and run
repowise init --yes. No API key needed. Repowise builds the graph, git,
health and dead-code layers and renders a complete wiki from that
structure.
(Optional) Set an API key: a provider upgrades the wiki to model-written prose and, with an embedder, semantic search. Environment variables lists every key and provider option. You can add it after the fact and upgrade pages in place, no re-index needed.
Connect Claude Code: repowise init already wrote .mcp.json
and registered the server. Restart Claude Code and you're done.
Don't want to install Python at all? The hosted version at repowise.dev runs the same engine on managed infrastructure. Sign in with GitHub, paste a repo URL, you're done. Same MCP tools, same dashboard, no install.
Requirements
System and toolchain requirements for self-hosted repowise, covering Python, Git, disk, and an LLM provider key.
Configuration: config.yaml & ignore files
The .repowise/ directory, the config.yaml file repowise generates on first init, and how to control which files get indexed with .gitignore, nested .gitignore, .repowiseIgnore, and --exclude.