Install Pear Runtime

The recommended way to run Swarmnero. One runtime, many P2P apps, auto-updates over the network.

Why Pears?

Pears is the peer-to-peer application platform from Holepunch — the same team that builds Hypercore and Hyperswarm. It's the native environment Swarmnero was designed for.

No installer warnings

Pears handles its own signed install. Swarmnero runs inside the Pear Runtime, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen never see an unsigned binary.

Auto-updates over P2P

New versions of Swarmnero replicate to your device over the same DHT your posts use. No "please update" dialogs, no download servers.

One runtime, many apps

Install Pears once and any P2P app built on it launches with a single pear run command.

Fully open source

Pears is MIT-licensed. The full source is on GitHub.

Prerequisites

You need Node.js 18 or newer. Check what you have:

node --version

If Node.js isn't installed or is older than 18:

macOS

Easiest: Homebrew → brew install node. Or download the installer from nodejs.org.

Windows

Download the LTS installer from nodejs.org and run it. The defaults are fine.

Linux

Use your distro's package manager (apt install nodejs npm, dnf install nodejs, etc.), or follow nodejs.org.

Install Pears

Open a terminal and run:

npm i -g pear

That's it. Verify:

pear --version

Permissions errors on macOS/Linux? If npm i -g fails with EACCES, either prefix with sudo or (better) configure npm's prefix so it installs into your home directory.

Launch Swarmnero

Once Pears is installed:

pear run pear://y3m1mm1xxrqj9jz5jpicc57rt4dem5t5g9s78j9riqft94u4j6jy

The first launch pulls the latest build of Swarmnero over the P2P network (a few seconds on a decent connection), then opens the app. Subsequent launches are instant — Pears only downloads deltas.

To update Swarmnero later, simply run the same command. Pears checks for a newer version automatically.

Troubleshooting

"pear: command not found"

npm's global bin directory isn't on your PATH. Run npm config get prefix to see where it installed, then add that /bin subdirectory to your shell PATH.

Firewall prompts

Pears connects over UDP for the Hyperswarm DHT. If your firewall blocks UDP, peer discovery won't work. Allow Pears when prompted.

Behind a corporate proxy

Pears uses P2P, not HTTP. Corporate proxies that only pass HTTPS will prevent peer connections. A VPN generally works around this.

Still stuck?

File an issue on GitHub, or read the official Pears documentation.