InvokeAI/docs/installation/INSTALL_SOURCE.md

---
title: The InvokeAI Source Installer
---

## Introduction

The source installer is a shell script that attempts to automate every
step needed to install and run InvokeAI on a stock computer running
recent versions of Linux, MacOSX or Windows. It will leave you with a
version that runs a stable version of InvokeAI with the option to
upgrade to experimental versions later. It is not as foolproof as the
[InvokeAI installer](INSTALL_INVOKE.md)

Before you begin, make sure that you meet the [hardware
requirements](index.md#Hardware_Requirements) and has the appropriate
GPU drivers installed. In particular, if you are a Linux user with an
AMD GPU installed, you may need to install the [ROCm
driver](https://rocmdocs.amd.com/en/latest/Installation_Guide/Installation-Guide.html).

Installation requires roughly 18G of free disk space to load the
libraries and recommended model weights files.

## Walk through

Though there are multiple steps, there really is only one click
involved to kick off the process.

1. The source installer is distributed in ZIP files. Go to the [latest
   release](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI/releases/latest), and
   look for a series of files named:

   - invokeAI-src-installer-mac.zip
   - invokeAI-src-installer-windows.zip
   - invokeAI-src-installer-linux.zip

Download the one that is appropriate for your operating system.

2. Unpack the zip file into a directory that has at least 18G of free
   space. Do *not* unpack into a directory that has an earlier version of
   InvokeAI.

   This will create a new directory named "InvokeAI". This example
   shows how this would look using the `unzip` command-line tool,
   but you may use any graphical or command-line Zip extractor:
   
   ```bash
   C:\Documents\Linco> unzip invokeAI-windows.zip
   Archive:  C: \Linco\Downloads\invokeAI-linux.zip
   creating: invokeAI\
   inflating: invokeAI\install.bat
   inflating: invokeAI\readme.txt     
   ```

3. If you are using a desktop GUI, double-click the installer file.
   It will be named `install.bat` on Windows systems and `install.sh`
   on Linux and Macintosh systems.

4. Alternatively, form the command line, run the shell script or .bat
   file:

   ```bash
   C:\Documents\Linco> cd invokeAI
   C:\Documents\Linco> install.bat
   ```

5. Sit back and let the install script work. It will install various
   binary requirements including Conda, Git and Python, then download
   the current InvokeAI code and install it along with its
   dependencies.

6. After installation completes, the installer will launch a script
   called `preload_models.py`, which will guide you through the
   first-time process of selecting one or more Stable Diffusion model
   weights files, downloading and configuring them.

   Note that the main Stable Diffusion weights file is protected by a
   license agreement that you must agree to in order to use. The
   script will list the steps you need to take to create an account on
   the official site that hosts the weights files, accept the
   agreement, and provide an access token that allows InvokeAI to
   legally download and install the weights files.

   If you have already downloaded the weights file(s) for another
   Stable Diffusion distribution, you may skip this step (by selecting
   "skip" when prompted) and configure InvokeAI to use the
   previously-downloaded files. The process for this is described in
   [INSTALLING_MODELS.md].

 7. The script will now exit and you'll be ready to generate some
    images. The invokeAI directory will contain numerous files. Look
    for a shell script named `invoke.sh` (Linux/Mac) or `invoke.bat`
    (Windows). Launch the script by double-clicking it or typing
    its name at the command-line:

   ```bash
   C:\Documents\Linco\invokeAI> cd invokeAI
   C:\Documents\Linco\invokeAI> invoke.bat
   ```

   The `invoke.bat` (`invoke.sh`) script will give you the choice of
   starting (1) the command-line interface, or (2) the web GUI. If you
   start the latter, you can load the user interface by pointing your
   browser at http://localhost:9090.

   The `invoke` script also offers you a third option labeled "open
   the developer console". If you choose this option, you will be
   dropped into a command-line interface in which you can run python
   commands directly, access developer tools, and launch InvokeAI
   with customized options. To do the latter, you would launch the
   script `scripts/invoke.py` as shown in this example:

   ```bash
   python scripts\invoke.py --web --max_load_models=3 \
       --model=waifu-1.3 --steps=30 --outdir=C:/Documents/AIPhotos
   ```

   These options are described in detail in the [Command-Line
   Interface](../features/CLI.md) documentation.

## Updating to newer versions

This section describes how to update InvokeAI to new versions of the
software.

### Updating the stable version

This distribution is changing rapidly, and we add new features on a
daily basis. To update to the latest released version (recommended),
run the `update.sh` (Linux/Mac) or `update.bat` (Windows)
scripts. This will fetch the latest release and re-run the
`preload_models` script to download any updated models files that may
be needed. You can also use this to add additional models that you did
not select at installation time.

### Updating to the development version

There may be times that there is a feature in the `development` branch
of InvokeAI that you'd like to take advantage of. Or perhaps there is
a branch that corrects an annoying bug. To do this, you will use the
developer's console.

From within the invokeAI directory, run the command `invoke.sh`
(Linux/Mac) or `invoke.bat` (Windows) and selection option (3) to open
the developers console. Then run the following command to get the
`development branch`:

```bash
git checkout development
git pull
conda env update
```

You can now close the developer console and run `invoke` as before.
If you get complaints about missing models, then you may need to do
the additional step of running `preload_models.py`. This happens
relatively infrequently. To do this, simply open up the developer's
console again and type `python scripts/preload_models.py`.

## Troubleshooting

If you run into problems during or after installation, the InvokeAI
team is available to help you. Either create an
[Issue](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI/issues) at our GitHub
site, or make a request for help on the "bugs-and-support" channel of
our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/ZmtBAhwWhy). We are a 100%
volunteer organization, but typically somebody will be available to
help you within 24 hours, and often much sooner.