Installation
The Orchestrator runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. It needs Docker on the machine that hosts the workspaces. The install script does not install Docker and warns when it cannot find it.
Releases are self-contained, so no .NET installation is needed.
Install script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/curiosity-ai/orchestrator/refs/heads/main/install.sh | sh
The script downloads the latest release for your platform, checks its SHA-256 and installs the program in ~/.curiosity/orchestrator.
- Linux and macOS: a launcher goes in
~/.curiosity/bin/curiosity-orchestrator, and your shell profile gets that folder onPATH. - Windows: the program folder is added to your user
PATH.
Open a new shell afterwards so that curiosity-orchestrator is on the path.
Install settings
All settings are optional environment variables.
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|---|
ORC_VERSION |
Install a specific release, such as v26.10.6452, instead of the latest. |
ORC_INSTALL |
Install under another folder instead of ~/.curiosity. |
ORC_NO_MODIFY_PATH=1 |
Leave PATH and your shell profile alone. |
GITHUB_TOKEN |
A GitHub token, for when you hit the API's anonymous rate limit. GH_TOKEN works too. |
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/curiosity-ai/orchestrator/main/install.sh | ORC_VERSION=v26.10.6452 sh
Upgrade
Run the install script again. It replaces the program folder as a whole. Your data lives in ORC_STORAGE, outside that folder, so it is kept. Restart the Orchestrator afterwards.
On Windows, stop the Orchestrator first: Windows locks the folder of a running program.
Restarting the Orchestrator does not stop the workspaces. They keep running, and the new process picks them up.
Manual download
Every release carries an archive per platform: linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-x64, osx-arm64 and win-x64. It also carries a SHA256SUMS file. Check your archive against it, then extract and run:
tar -xzf curiosity-orchestrator-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
cd curiosity-orchestrator-<version>-linux-x64
ORC_ADMIN_PASSWORD='choose-a-password' ./curiosity-orchestrator
Keep the folder together. It holds the server as one executable, its native RocksDB library next to it, and the web front-end in wwwroot/.
Docker
The Orchestrator also ships as the image curiosityai/orchestrator for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. See Run it in Docker.
Check the install
ORC_ADMIN_PASSWORD='choose-a-password' curiosity-orchestrator
Startup fails with exit code 0xBAD (2989, which a shell reports as 173) when ORC_ADMIN_PASSWORD is missing or shorter than 8 characters. In another shell:
curl http://localhost:8080/health
The answer is ok. The log says when the Orchestrator cannot reach Docker, and the console's overview shows the same message.