Install

curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/haus.sh | bash

That installs Nix if you don't have it, asks you a few questions (including which desktop you want), and writes your config. It does not change your Mac on its own: it writes files, prints the one command that activates them, and asks before running it for you.

So the whole install is two moves, and you can stop between them and read what the first one wrote. (The pipe doesn't cost you the questions: the installer reaches your terminal directly, so | bash interviews you like any other form. In CI, a container, or a run whose output you've captured to a file, no one is watching, so it takes the defaults and never offers to switch.)

If you already know which desktop you want

Every desktop has its own URL, and typing it answers the question before it's asked:

curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/hacker.sh    | bash   # the full desktop
curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/everyday.sh  | bash   # for someone who doesn't write code
curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/minimal.sh   | bash   # just the themed shell

They're the same script: the URL sets the desktop and the installer skips that one question. haus.sh is the one that asks. A Mac runs exactly one desktop, and whichever you pick, changing your mind later is a line in your own config, not a reinstall.

Piping to bash passes no arguments, which is why the desktop rides in the URL rather than on a flag. If you'd rather use the flag, give bash a -s --:

curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/haus.sh | bash -s -- --desktop=minimal

Before you start

• A Mac on Apple Silicon, running a recent macOS. Intel isn't supported.
• Xcode Command Line Tools. The installer prompts for them if they're missing, then asks you to re-run.
• 10–15 minutes and a few GB of download for the first build.

Read it first, if you like

curl … | bash runs whatever the URL serves, so it's fair to want to look. The URL only proxies bootstrap.sh from the public repo; it's boring on purpose.

curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/haus.sh | less

# or pin an exact release and diff it against GitHub
curl -fsSL 'https://hausfold.co/haus.sh?ref=v2026.07.18' | less

A desktop's URL serves that same file with two lines added at the top, saying which desktop you asked for. haus.sh adds nothing at all, so it's the one to diff against GitHub.

By default you get the latest release tag. Releases are date-tagged, so ?ref=v2026.07.18 pins a specific day, and a release tag is the only thing ?ref= accepts. Anything else is refused rather than fetched, which is what stops a link with someone else's commit in it from serving you a script off this domain.

What it does

Nothing is active yet. Wherever there's a terminal to ask on, piped or not, the last thing it asks is whether to change that: say yes and it runs the two commands below for you, then haus doctor. Unattended, it stops here and prints them.

Build and switch

cd ~/.config/nix
nix build .#darwinConfigurations.$(scutil --get LocalHostName).system \
  && sudo ./result/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild switch --flake .

The build runs first, and a failed build never touches your system. When it succeeds, everything lands at once: apps install, the bar and tiling start, your terminal is themed, and haus joins your PATH.

The first run is slow; it's downloading the world. After that, haus rebuild is the only command you need.

If you regret it

Unattended installs

Every question has an environment variable, so the whole thing can run without a prompt:

HAUS_NONINTERACTIVE=1 \
HAUS_GIT_NAME="Ada Lovelace" \
HAUS_GIT_EMAIL="ada@example.com" \
HAUS_ACCENT="mauve" \
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://hausfold.co/haus.sh)"

These are also what you want if you hand the install to a coding agent: the questions are a terminal UI, and a tool driving it blind is how someone else's git identity ends up in your config. An agent can do everything up to the build; the two sudo steps are yours.

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