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Installation

Requirements

  • Julia 1.12 or later

Install Kaimon

Use Julia's package app system to install the kaimon command globally:

julia
]app add Kaimon

This installs a kaimon script to ~/.julia/bin/. Make sure ~/.julia/bin is on your PATH, then launch from anywhere:

bash
kaimon

To update to a newer release later:

julia
]app add Kaimon

To pin a specific version:

julia
]app add Kaimon@1.2.2

Connect a Julia session (KaimonGate)

To make one of your project's Julia sessions reachable by the kaimon dashboard, you only need the lightweight KaimonGate package. It depends on just ZMQ and the standard library — fast to install and free of dependency conflicts (handy on remote/compute nodes):

julia
pkg> add KaimonGate

Then, in the session you want to expose:

julia
using KaimonGate
KaimonGate.serve()

The session appears in the running kaimon TUI. This is the recommended way to connect your own projects, whether local or remote.

As a Library (full Kaimon)

You can also add the full Kaimon package as a dependency; it bundles KaimonGate, so KaimonGate.serve() works exactly as above. (The full package also keeps a deprecated Kaimon.Gate alias for the historical Kaimon.Gate.* API — new code should use KaimonGate.)

julia
using Pkg
Pkg.add("Kaimon")

Or to track the development branch:

julia
Pkg.develop(url="https://github.com/kahliburke/Kaimon.jl")

Optional Dependencies

Kaimon can index your codebase into Qdrant for natural language code search. If you want to use the semantic search tools (qdrant_index_project, search_code, etc.), run a local Qdrant instance:

bash
docker run -d --name qdrant -p 6333:6333 -p 6334:6334 \
  -v qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage \
  qdrant/qdrant

Qdrant is not required for core functionality. The semantic search tools will simply be unavailable if no Qdrant instance is detected.

VS Code Remote Control

To use VS Code integration tools (execute_vscode_command, navigate_to_file, etc.), Kaimon includes a built-in VS Code extension. Install it from the TUI Config tab (press v), or from the Julia REPL:

julia
using Kaimon
Kaimon.install_vscode_remote_control()

Reload VS Code after installation to activate. This enables AI agents to execute VS Code commands and navigate to specific file locations from the MCP interface.

Verify Installation

Run kaimon from any terminal:

bash
kaimon

On first launch, a setup wizard will guide you through security configuration and MCP client setup. You should see the TUI dashboard appear with session, activity, and configuration panels.

Next Steps