# Installation

Although Varphi is fundamentally a compiled language, we have created a *compiler driver* which handles both compiling your Varphi code and running the compiled code. We call this tool *the Varphi Interpreter*, or *vpi* for short.

The Varphi Interpreter is installable via two methods, which we cover below.

### Installation via pip (Recommended)

If you already have pip installed, you can easily install the Varphi Interpreter via

```bash
pip install varphi-interpreter
```

{% hint style="warning" %}
To avoid future issues, please create a Virtual Environment before installing. Simple instructions can be found below, but please refer to the [official guide](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) in case of any issues. \
\
On Windows:

```
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
```

On Linux/macOS:

```
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
```

{% endhint %}

The Varphi Interpreter should then be accessible through the `vpi` command. For example, you can confirm the installation succeeded using

```bash
vpi --version
```

### Installation via GitHub Releases

We have pre-compiled some versions of the Varphi Interpreter for popular operating systems, namely the latest Windows, macOS, and Linux (Ubuntu) versions. The binaries are available on [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/varphi-lang/varphi/releases). These executables work right out of the box; just download the executable for your OS and invoke it over the command line. For example, to confirm the executable works, you can use

```bash
/path/to/the/downloaded/executable --version
```


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