Install the Chrome extension

What the one-line installer does, where it puts the extension, and how an update works.

Install the Chrome extension with one command, then load it into Chrome on the page that command opens. At the end, Commentware is in Chrome, ready to connect to a server.

Prerequisites

Chrome.
An invite code. Select Request access on the homepage to ask for one. A browser that holds a code shows it on /lounge/account/, under “Your invite code”.

Run the installer

The same wherever your server ends up. One command, and no package manager is involved.

Run the command for your system:
macOS and Linux
```
curl -fsSL https://commentware.com/install/extension.sh | sh
```
It lands in ~/Commentware/bin. Run this command again to update the extension.
Windows
```
iwr -useb https://commentware.com/install/extension.ps1 | iex
```
PowerShell 5.1, which is what Windows ships. It lands in %USERPROFILE%\Commentware\bin.
When the installer prints Commentware is invite-only for now. Enter your invite code:, type your code and press Enter. If it answers That is not a valid invite code., it asks again, three tries in all.
Follow the page it opens in Chrome to load the extension.

Have the code ready: the installer asks for it first and keeps it on your machine.

The command downloads commentware-installer-cli — a small binary with no runtime behind it — and runs it. It checks the extension’s signature, unpacks it into ~/Commentware/extension (%USERPROFILE%\Commentware\extension on Windows), and opens /setup-extension/ in Google Chrome, in a profile called Commentware. That page walks you through loading the extension into Chrome, with the directory ready to copy.

Learn more about the invite code, what the installer checks before it unpacks anything and the profile and how to choose another.

Check that it worked

The page the installer opened ends with the check.

Update

To update, run the install command above again. The page the command opens takes you through the rest, and Update Commentware is the same update from the start. The same run updates a server installed on this computer. Learn more about what a run installs and updates.

What you did

Entered your invite code, which the installer checked and kept.
Installed the extension, checked against its signature, into its own Chrome profile.
Loaded it into Chrome from the directory the installer unpacked, on the page it opened.

Next steps

Install a server: run a server of your own, connect the extension to it, and leave your first comment.
Connect to a server: join a server somebody else runs.