Installation
From source (recommended)
Keel is built in Rust. You need the Rust toolchain installed.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/keel-lang/keel.git
cd keel
# Build the release binary
cargo build --release
# The binary is at target/release/keel
./target/release/keel --version
Optionally, add it to your PATH:
cp target/release/keel /usr/local/bin/
Verify installation
keel --help
You should see:
Keel — AI agents as first-class citizens
Usage: keel <COMMAND>
Commands:
run Execute an Keel program
check Type-check an Keel program without executing
init Scaffold a new Keel project
repl Interactive REPL
fmt Format an Keel file
build Compile an Keel file to bytecode
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
LLM setup
Keel agents use LLMs for AI primitives (classify, draft, summarize, etc.). You need at least one provider:
Option A: Ollama (local, free)
# Install Ollama (https://ollama.com)
ollama pull gemma4
# Tell Keel which model to use
export KEEL_OLLAMA_MODEL=gemma4
Option B: Anthropic Claude API
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
See LLM Providers for detailed configuration.
Editor support
Install the VS Code extension for syntax highlighting:
# From the project directory
cd editors/vscode
# Install via VS Code's extension manager, or:
code --install-extension keel-lang-0.1.0.vsix