Installation

zo requires an OpenRouter API key. Rust is needed only when installing with Cargo or building from source.

Pre-built binaries

Download the archive for your platform from GitHub Releases. Releases provide Linux x86-64/ARM64 builds, macOS Intel/Apple Silicon builds, and Windows x86-64 builds.

Extract the archive and place zo (or zo.exe) somewhere on your PATH.

Cargo

cargo install zo-cli

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/svent/zo.git
cd zo
cargo build --release

The binary is written to target/release/zo.

Configure the API key

Environment variables take precedence over the config file.

bash/zsh

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY='sk-or-v1-...'

Initialize a commented config and default shell-policy file with:

zo +init-config

This creates ~/.config/zo/config.toml and ~/.config/zo/policies/default. OpenRouter's BYOK settings can route requests through provider keys you already have.

Verify the installation

zo --version
zo 'Reply with: zo is ready'
zo +list-models

+init-config and +list-models are standalone actions; they cannot be combined with prompts or request flags.

Continue to Quick Start →