Install

Get the Nowline CLI

Three install paths. Pick the one that matches your environment. Then render your first roadmap.

Homebrew (post-OSS first release)

For macOS and Linux. Pulls a single statically-linked binary — no Node.js required. 

brew trust lolay/tap
brew install lolay/tap/nowline
nowline --version

Tap details and signing chain in the OSS homebrew-tap spec.

npm

The fastest way today.

npm install -g @nowline/cli
nowline --version

Requires Node.js 20+. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

From source

If you want to hack on Nowline itself, or you're not on a glibc Linux.

git clone https://github.com/lolay/nowline.git
cd nowline
pnpm install
pnpm build
node packages/cli/dist/index.js examples/minimal.nowline   # writes ./minimal.svg

Or expose nowline on your PATH with a local npm link: 

cd packages/cli
npm link
nowline examples/minimal.nowline

Author your first roadmap

Create a roadmap.nowline file:

nowline v1

roadmap minimal "Starter" start:2026-01-05 scale:2w

swimlane engineering "Engineering"
  item research "Research"  duration:3w status:done
  item design   "Design"    duration:2w status:in-progress
  item build    "Build"     duration:3w status:planned

Render it:

nowline roadmap.nowline             # writes ./roadmap.svg
nowline roadmap.nowline -f png      # writes ./roadmap.png
nowline roadmap.nowline -f mermaid  # writes ./roadmap.md

Next steps