Installation Guide

System Requirements

Nimbus is extremely lightweight and works on almost any Windows machine.

Option 1: Quick Install (Recommended)

The easiest way to install Nimbus is using the installer script or downloading the full package.

1. Download the latest release

   Get nimbus-full.zip from the Releases Page.

2. Extract the files

   Extract the contents to a permanent location, e.g., C:\nimbus.

   folder

   Important: Keep all files (nimbus.exe, Program.cs, WpfEngine.cs, etc.) in the same folder. This is required for the build command to work.
3. Add to PATH

   Open Start → Search "Environment Variables" → Edit Path → Add C:\nimbus.

Option 2: Manual Setup

If you want to set it up manually or move nimbus.exe to system folders.

Why Source Files Matter?

Unlike other CLI tools, Nimbus can self-compile your projects into standalone EXEs. To do this, it needs access to its own source code files (`.cs`) at runtime.

C:\nimbus\
├── nimbus.exe          # Main Executable
├── Program.cs          # Build System
├── WpfEngine.cs        # Core Engine
├── WpfUI.cs            # UI Renderer
├── LogicRunner.cs      # Logic Engine
├── XmlParser.cs        # Parser
├── XamlRenderer.cs     # XAML Gen
├── CSharpCompiler.cs   # Runtime Compiler
└── DevToolsServer.cs   # Debug Server

If you copy ONLY nimbus.exe to C:\Windows, the run and dev commands will work, but nimbus build will fail because it cannot find the source files to embed in your app.

Verification

Open a new Command Prompt or PowerShell terminal and run:

nimbus --version

You should see:

Nimbus Framework v3.0.0

Now try creating a new project:

nimbus new MyFirstApp