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The Astra Kairo Developer Preview is distributed as a Windows 11 x64 ZIP bundle with a PowerShell installer. This page covers system requirements, install steps, verification, and uninstall.
This is the Developer Preview. It is intended for early adopters, experimentation, and feedback. It is not recommended for production systems. macOS, Linux, and Windows ARM64 packaging remain deferred.

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System Requirements

The first Developer Preview is validated on:
  • Windows 11 x64
  • PowerShell 5.1 or later
  • Current-user install permissions (elevation not required for user-local installs)

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What Gets Installed

The SDK installs:
  • Studio — the official Kairo IDE
  • Forge — compiler and build engine
  • Pulse — runtime for compiled Kairo applications
  • Kairo CLI — top-level project and diagnostic commands
  • SDK command shims for forge, pulse, kairo, and studio
  • Project templates (Console Application, Library, Empty Package)
  • Contact Preview sample project
  • Offline documentation

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Download

Download the Developer Preview bundle for Windows 11 x64:
The bundle contains the SDK ZIP artifact and install/uninstall PowerShell scripts. A checksums-sha256.txt file ships alongside the bundle so you can verify integrity.
The Developer Preview installer scripts are unsigned. There is no auto-updater, no code signing, and no MSI/MSIX package yet. WiX/MSI remains the intended production installer direction.

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Install

1

Extract the bundle

Extract the outer bundle to a working folder.Then extract the inner SDK artifact AstraKairo-SDK-0.1.0.0-rc-win-x64.zip to a temporary folder named payload.
2

Open PowerShell

Open a PowerShell terminal in the folder that contains tools/ and payload/.
3

Run the installer

For a standard install to Program Files:
For a user-local install with no PATH, registry, or Start Menu changes (useful for validation):

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Verify the Install

Open a new terminal (so PATH changes take effect) and run:
Expected result:
  • kairo doctor exits with code 0 and prints Result: OK
  • forge, pulse, kairo, and studio all resolve from the installed SDK SDK\bin directory
If kairo doctor reports a missing component, re-run the installer with matching -PayloadRoot and -InstallRoot, or clean up leftover files and try again.

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Uninstall

To remove installer-owned SDK files:
For validation installs that did not write PATH, registry, or Start Menu entries:
Uninstall preserves user-created projects, copied samples outside the install root, Studio user settings, and external package or cache data. It removes only installer-owned SDK files, command shims, and (when originally enabled) PATH entries, file associations, and Start Menu shortcuts.

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Known Limitations

This Developer Preview candidate is not a production release. Known limitations include:
  • ZIP plus PowerShell installer instead of MSI or MSIX
  • Scripts are unsigned
  • No automatic updater
  • No code signing
  • No package registry integration
  • No Git integration
  • No telemetry or crash reporting
  • No UIX or Forms designer
  • No macOS or Linux packaging
  • Debugger expression evaluation is intentionally limited
  • Watch expressions are read-only and limited to safe name and member paths

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Next Steps

Quickstart

Build and run your first Kairo program.

Forge CLI

Reference for every Forge command.