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Installation

You need two things: the ONQL server (the database itself) and the ONQL shell (a terminal client to talk to it). Both are open source.

For a per-platform table of every installer and archive we ship, see the Downloads page — it's generated from the latest GitHub release on every docs build, so the links never go stale.

1. Install the server​

Pick the path that matches your OS.

Windows​

Grab the latest onql-server_*_Windows_x86_64.zip from the server releases, extract it, and run onql-server.exe:

# From PowerShell, after extracting the zip
.\onql-server.exe

Native MSI installers will land in a future release; the Downloads page will show them as soon as they're published.

macOS​

# Apple Silicon
curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_macOS_arm64.tar.gz
tar -xzf onql-server_macOS_arm64.tar.gz
./onql-server

# Intel
curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_macOS_x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf onql-server_macOS_x86_64.tar.gz
./onql-server

First run may be blocked by Gatekeeper — right-click the binary, Open, and confirm. Or remove the quarantine attribute:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine onql-server

Linux — Debian / Ubuntu​

curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_linux_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i onql-server_linux_amd64.deb
onql-server

Linux — RHEL / Fedora / CentOS​

curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_linux_amd64.rpm
sudo rpm -i onql-server_linux_amd64.rpm
onql-server

Linux — Alpine​

curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_linux_amd64.apk
sudo apk add --allow-untrusted onql-server_linux_amd64.apk
onql-server

Linux — any other distro (tarball)​

curl -LO https://github.com/ONQL/server/releases/latest/download/onql-server_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf onql-server_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
./onql-server

ARM64 and ARMv7 archives are available on the Downloads page.

Docker​

docker pull onql/server:latest
docker run -p 5656:5656 -v $(pwd)/data:/data onql/server:latest

See the Docker deployment guide for production settings (volumes, memory limits, healthchecks).

From source​

git clone https://github.com/ONQL/server
cd server
go build -o onql-server ./cmd/server
./onql-server

Requires Go 1.21+.

The server listens on TCP port 5656 by default.

2. Install the ONQL shell​

The shell is currently a Python program — prebuilt installers are on the roadmap and will surface on the Downloads page as soon as they're published.

From source (all platforms)​

git clone https://github.com/ONQL/onql-shell-client
cd onql-shell-client
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Requires Python 3.7 or newer.

Once running, you'll see the ONQL banner and a prompt:

onql>

It asks for a host and port the first time — press enter to accept the defaults (localhost, 5656). See Shell Commands for the full command reference.

Next steps​