Wanaku

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You are reading the docs for Wanaku next, the Rust-based server (early access of 0.3.0). Read the Classic docs for the Java-based Wanaku 0.2.

Install the Wanaku server and CLI ​

Wanaku ships as a single wanaku-server binary and as container images. The Wanaku CLI is a separate download. This page lists every install method. The quickstart uses the installer script.

Choose a variant ​

Wanaku has two variants:

VariantArchive nameDescription
Fullwanaku-server-{version}-{platform}Includes the embedded admin UI at http://localhost:8080/admin
Headlesswanaku-server-headless-{version}-{platform}Does not include the admin UI. Use the management API or CLI to manage Wanaku. You can also include Wanaku in other tools.

Both variants provide the same MCP endpoint, management API, and filter pipeline. Only the full variant includes the admin UI.

IMPORTANT

The early-access builds are development builds of the unreleased Wanaku 0.3.0. They change often. Wanaku 0.3.0 will be the first stable release of this server. If you need a slower cadence of changes, watch the releases page for it. Earlier releases contain the Java-based Wanaku, which is deprecated.

Install the server ​

Select a variant for your use case. You can install it in one of three ways.

Use the server installer (Linux and macOS) ​

The installer downloads the early-access archive for your platform, verifies the checksum, and installs wanaku-server in $HOME/bin:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanaku-ai/wanaku/main/get-wanaku.sh | bash

Set WANAKU_INSTALL_DIR to install in a different directory. To run Wanaku as a systemd service, install in /usr/local/bin, because the unit template uses that path:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanaku-ai/wanaku/main/get-wanaku.sh | sudo WANAKU_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash

NOTE

The wanaku-barn repository has a different get-wanaku.sh script. That script installs the Wanaku CLI, not the server.

Download the archive manually ​

Download it from the early access release page. The archive contains a top-level directory with the same name as the archive. Extract the archive and move the binary to a directory in your PATH. Replace <archive> with the name of the archive that you downloaded, without the .tar.gz extension:

bash
tar -xzf <archive>.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 <archive>/wanaku-server /usr/local/bin/wanaku-server

Use a container image ​

Pull the image for the selected variant:

bash
# Full (with admin UI)
podman pull quay.io/wanaku/wanaku-server:early-access

# Headless (no admin UI)
podman pull quay.io/wanaku/wanaku-server-headless:early-access

You can use docker instead of podman in all commands. Read Run Wanaku in a container to start the image.

Install the CLI ​

The Wanaku CLI is a separate package. Download the latest wanaku binary from the wanaku-barn release page.

The full variant of the server also has a CLI Downloads page in the admin UI. After you start the server, go to http://localhost:8080 and select CLI Downloads in the side navigation. The headless variant does not include the admin UI.

bash
chmod +x wanaku
sudo mv wanaku /usr/local/bin/

Verify the CLI installation:

bash
wanaku --version

NOTE

The Wanaku CLI supports the Java-based Wanaku router and the Rust-based engine. Add the --no-auth flag when the router does not require authentication.

Next steps ​