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Installation

Requirements

  • Python 3.12 or newer.
  • uv.
  • Linux or macOS for the Chalk command. On Windows, use a Linux environment such as WSL; the native Windows command is not currently supported.
  • A runtime to run environments in. See below.

Install Chalk locally

From the project checkout:

uv tool install .
chalk --version
chalk --help

The local distribution is chalk-rl-env. The command and Python import are chalk. This project has not specified a public package registry destination. Use a local checkout instead of uv tool install chalk.

Runtime prerequisites

chalk run and chalk build pick a runtime based on your system or you can select one via the --runtime option.

Platform Default runtime What you need
macOS 26+ on Apple silicon apple-container Apple container 1.4.1 or newer, started with container system start.
Linux x86_64 or aarch64 with /dev/kvm firecracker Membership in the kvm group, docker with buildx (it builds the image), and pasta (package passt).
Other supported Linux or macOS systems docker docker with buildx.

You can always explicitly use docker with --runtime docker, or podman with --runtime podman, instead. Ubuntu's docker.io package lacks buildx; install docker-buildx too.

If the default VM runtime isn't set up, Chalk stops before the run and tells you what's missing.

See Runtimes for the full setup of each runtime and what it gives the student.

Next steps

  • Quick start: create an environment and run its example task.
  • Concepts: what environments, tasks, steps and judges are.