Wasm Shell (wash) CLI

Wasm Shell (wash) is the comprehensive command-line tool for developing, building, and publishing WebAssembly components.

The CLI provides an intuitive developer experience for the modern Wasm ecosystem, from project scaffolding to building and pushing components to OCI registries.

The Wasm Shell CLI is available on GitHub as part of the open source wasmCloud project, hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Install wash

macOS and Linux

shell

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wasmcloud/wash/refs/heads/main/install.sh | bash

On a successful installation, the script will return:

shell

[INFO] Next steps:
  1. Add /path/to to your PATH if not already included
  2. Run 'wash --help' to see available commands
  3. Run 'wash doctor' to verify your environment
  4. Run 'wash new' to create your first WebAssembly component

Add wash to your PATH with the filepath listed in Step 1, replacing /path/to with your local filepath:

shell

export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/wash"

Windows

powershell

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wasmcloud/wash/refs/heads/main/install.ps1 | iex

powershell

Next steps:
  1. Add /path/to to your PATH if not already included
  2. Run 'wash --help' to see available commands
  3. Run 'wash doctor' to verify your environment
  4. Run 'wash new' to create your first WebAssembly component

To add wash to your PATH by updating your PowerShell profile, add the filepath for wash returned above to your profile, replacing /path/to with your local filepath:

powershell

notepad $PROFILE

powershell

$env:Path += ";C:\path\to\wash"

Source

You will need cargo to install from source.

shell

git clone https://github.com/wasmcloud/wash.git
cd wash
cargo install --path .

Pre-built binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows are available on GitHub.

What does wash do?

note

This quick command tour requires the Rust toolchain and the wasm32-wasip2 target for Rust: rustup target add wasm32-wasip2

Check your environment for component development dependencies:

shell

wash doctor

Create a new component:

shell

wash new https://github.com/wasmCloud/wash.git --subfolder examples/http-hello-world

Build a component project into a WebAssembly binary:

shell

wash -C ./http-hello-world build

Start a component development loop:

shell

wash -C ./http-hello-world dev

Update wash:

shell

wash update

Next steps

• Explore the wash CLI's Command Reference.
• Read the Developer Guide to create a WebAssembly component.