Installation

Updated 25 Oct 2026

This guide uses Zig master, not a tagged release. Each night, CI compiles and runs each snippet on this site against a new master build. The nightly run keeps the snippets correct. But a stable release cannot compile some of these examples.

The full procedure

1. Download Zig master
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2. Put zig on PATH
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3. Run zig version
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4. Install a matching ZLS
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5. Write hello world

Only steps 1 and 2 are different on each platform. The other steps are the same on all platforms. Step 5 is hello world, the next chapter.

Get master

The easiest method is a prebuilt tarball from ziglang.org/download. Do these steps:

Download the tarball under master, not the latest release.
Unpack the tarball into a directory of your choice.
Add that directory to your PATH.

Linux

curl -L https://ziglang.org/builds/zig-x86_64-linux-0.18.0-dev.xxxx+xxxxxxxxx.tar.xz -o zig.tar.xz
tar xf zig.tar.xz -C ~/.local
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/zig-x86_64-linux-0.18.0-dev.xxxx+xxxxxxxxx:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

The xxxx+xxxxxxxxx part is the name of the build, and it changes each night. Copy the current name from the download page, and put it in the two lines. If you do not change the commands, they do not work.

macOS

brew install zig --HEAD

Homebrew’s --HEAD follows master. If you do not want to build from source, download the aarch64-macos tarball from the download page. Then add it to PATH in the same way as the Linux instructions above.

Windows

winget install zig.zig

winget installs the tagged release, but this guide needs master. For master, do these steps:

Download the x86_64-windows zip from the download page.
Unpack the zip.
Add that folder to Path under System Properties, Environment Variables.

If you change versions frequently, a version manager does the manual step for you. A version manager works the same on all three platforms:

# zvm
zvm install master && zvm use master

# asdf
asdf install zig master && asdf global zig master

Check the version

zig version
# 0.18.0-dev.xxxx+xxxxxxxxx

If the version does not contain -dev, it is a tagged release. Several chapters on this site do not build against a tagged release. If the shell cannot find zig, step 2 did not work.

The version of this site

The footer shows the exact compiler that built and checked each snippet on this site. If your local zig version is different, expect small differences, because master changes each day.

An editor

ZLS is the language server. The version of ZLS must be near the version of your compiler. If you use master, build ZLS from source against your Zig. A ZLS for an older release shows false errors on current syntax.

Why master, and the cost

Zig does not have a 1.0 release yet. The language continues to change, and some changes break code. Thus a guide must select one of two targets:

If the examples use a tagged release, they stay the same. But in less than one year, they are out of date.
If the examples use master, they are correct today. But they can need a fix tomorrow.

This guide uses master. Each night, a build compiles and runs each snippet again against a new compiler. Thus the examples stay correct.

If an example on this site does not compile on your computer, check zig version first. A difference of some weeks usually causes no problem. A difference across a tagged release usually causes problems.

For software that you ship, a release is a reasonable choice. Migrate from an older Zig gives a list of the differences, thus you can still use this guide.

Keep Zig current

Master changes each day. Update one time each week. Then the changes come in small parts, and each change is easy to fix. Six months of changes at one time take much longer to fix.

zvm install master && zvm use master

When an update breaks your code, the error message usually tells you what changed. For example, a function has a new name, a function has a new parameter, or a namespace moved. The what’s new page records the changes that had an effect on this guide. Those changes are a good indication of the changes that can have an effect on your code.

No other tools are necessary

Zig is one binary. It includes its own C compiler, and it can cross-compile to each supported target without more tools. It needs no separate build tool, because zig build is part of Zig. You do not need to assemble a toolchain.

You also do not install a package manager or configure a formatter. zig fmt is part of Zig, and it has no options. A debugger needs no special configuration. Use your current debugger on the binary.

Check your disk space. The tarball is several hundred megabytes. Most of that space is libc sources and headers for each supported target. Zig needs these files to cross-compile, and you download them one time.