Installing the driver

The driver is a service that manages the digital objects themselves. Installing it puts four binaries under ~/.dobj/bin/:

The driver installs with an empty action catalog: applications ship separately as plugins (.pexe files). The steps below install the binaries, open the browser UI with dobj ui, and add an example plugin such as craft-basics or craft-rocket.

Release binaries are configured with the hosted synchronizer and relayer endpoints, so a fresh install needs no configuration.

1. Install the binaries

The install script downloads the latest release into ~/.dobj/bin and prints a PATH hint. To pin a version, set DOBJ_VERSION (bash) / $env:DOBJ_VERSION (PowerShell) to a release tag first.

On macOS or Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/main/install.sh | sh

On Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/main/install.ps1 | iex

Windows: the binaries aren't codesigned yet, so SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway.

To install without the script, see Manual install below.

2. Open the browser UI

On macOS or Linux:

~/.dobj/bin/dobj ui

On Windows:

& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" ui

dobj ui starts the daemon if needed and opens its default UI at http://127.0.0.1:7717/ui/. Run it again whenever you want to return to the UI. The release daemon bundles the frontend, so no Node.js or Vite setup is needed. The action catalog is empty until you install a plugin in the next step.

For CLI or agent use without opening a browser, use dobj start instead. dobj ui --no-open starts the daemon if needed and prints the URL.

Note: the first start builds ZK circuits and can take a few minutes. Later starts take seconds.

3. Install a plugin

dobj install takes a local .pexe path or an http(s) URL, validates it, and hot-reloads the running daemon's catalog, so the daemon does not need to restart. Two example plugins ship with each release:

• craft-basics, a small crafting demo.
• craft-rocket, a larger factory tech tree.

Install either, or both. On macOS or Linux:

~/.dobj/bin/dobj install https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download/craft-basics.pexe
~/.dobj/bin/dobj install https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download/craft-rocket.pexe

On Windows:

& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" install https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download/craft-basics.pexe
& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" install https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download/craft-rocket.pexe

After installing a plugin, reload the browser tab opened by dobj ui to load its actions.

4. Verify

On macOS or Linux:

~/.dobj/bin/dobj status      # pid + HTTP healthcheck
~/.dobj/bin/dobj actions     # installed plugin actions
~/.dobj/bin/dobj state-root  # 64-hex root: the hosted synchronizer is reachable

On Windows:

& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" status
& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" actions
& "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj\bin\dobj.exe" state-root

5. Connect a client

Every client talks to the same daemon:

• Browser UI: dobj ui (starts the daemon if needed and opens your browser)
• CLI: ~/.dobj/bin/dobj (add ~/.dobj/bin to your PATH)
• Claude Code / MCP agents: claude mcp add --transport http dobj http://127.0.0.1:7718/mcp
• Stdio-only agents (e.g. Claude Desktop): point them at ~/.dobj/bin/dobj-mcp-proxy

MCP is off by default. Before connecting an agent, enable it with dobj settings set --mcp on (use the full binary path if it is not on your PATH yet). See INSTALL.md for agent-specific setup.

After connecting MCP and starting a fresh agent session, you can optionally open the Digital Objects command menu. In Claude Code:

/mcp__dobj__start

In Codex:

Call dobj invoke_prompt with: {"name":"start","arguments":{"command":"help"}} Then follow the returned messages.

All MCP tools remain available without starting the command interface.

Installing with an agent

An MCP-aware agent (Claude Code, Cursor, ...) can perform the steps above. Give it this prompt:

Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/main/INSTALL.md, install and start the Digital Objects driver, install the craft-rocket plugin, and configure MCP for this agent if supported.

INSTALL.md walks the agent through each step, including plugin install and MCP connection.

Manual install

To fetch the archives yourself, detect your platform's target triple, then download the three tarballs from the releases page (the dobjd tarball bundles dobj-mcp-proxy).

On macOS or Linux:

case "$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" in
  Darwin-arm64)   TARGET=aarch64-apple-darwin ;;
  Darwin-x86_64)  TARGET=x86_64-apple-darwin ;;
  Linux-x86_64)   TARGET=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu ;;
  *) echo "unsupported platform: $(uname -sm)"; exit 1 ;;
esac

RELEASE=https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download
mkdir -p ~/.dobj/bin
curl -fsSL "$RELEASE/dobjd-$TARGET.tar.gz" | tar -xz -C ~/.dobj/bin
curl -fsSL "$RELEASE/dobj-$TARGET.tar.gz"  | tar -xz -C ~/.dobj/bin
curl -fsSL "$RELEASE/pexe-$TARGET.tar.gz"  | tar -xz -C ~/.dobj/bin
chmod +x ~/.dobj/bin/dobjd ~/.dobj/bin/dobj ~/.dobj/bin/dobj-mcp-proxy ~/.dobj/bin/pexe

On Windows (PowerShell):

$TARGET  = "x86_64-pc-windows-msvc"     # the only Windows target built
$RELEASE = "https://github.com/0xPARC/digital-objects-network/releases/latest/download"
$DOBJ    = "$env:USERPROFILE\.dobj"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$DOBJ\bin" | Out-Null
foreach ($name in @("dobjd", "dobj", "pexe")) {
    $tmp = "$DOBJ\$name-$TARGET.tar.gz"
    curl.exe -fsSL "$RELEASE/$name-$TARGET.tar.gz" -o $tmp
    tar -xzf $tmp -C "$DOBJ\bin"
    Remove-Item $tmp
}

Then continue from 2. Open the browser UI.

Other infrastructure

The hosted endpoints are defaults, not requirements. See Choosing services for how to point the driver at any synchronizer and relayer, including your own.