macOS

Prerequisites

Docker Desktop, running. It bundles Compose v2, and works the same on Apple Silicon and Intel — the images are published multi-arch (linux/amd64 and linux/arm64), so there’s no emulation on an M-series Mac.

Nothing else is needed: no Python, no Homebrew packages, no source checkout.

Install

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bantex01/VectorStep-Dist/main/install.sh | bash

Everything lands in ~/.vectorstep/, with pipelines/, steps/, and agents/ as ordinary directories you can open in any editor — they’re mounted into the containers, so a saved file is picked up without a rebuild.

Add --service-only if the Gateway runs elsewhere or you drive VectorStep with OpenClaw. The installer pins the installed release in .env; re-run it with --upgrade to move to the latest one (see Linux for details). It never overwrites your config, authored files, or anything in .env except the version.

Day-to-day

cd ~/.vectorstep
docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f vectorstep
docker compose restart vectorstep   # pick up an edit to config/vectorstep.yaml
docker compose down           # stop, keeping data

Pipelines, steps, agents and skills hot-reload, and .env or compose changes need docker compose up -d — see Changing configuration for which change needs which.

Notes specific to macOS

• Docker Desktop must be running before the installer will work; it will tell you plainly if it isn’t.
• Ports. VectorStep binds 8000 on localhost. The Gateway’s 18780 is not published to the host by default — vectorstep reaches it over the compose network only; see Reaching the Gateway from the host if you need it directly. If 8000 clashes with something else, change VECTORSTEP_PORT in ~/.vectorstep/.env and re-run docker compose up -d.
• There is no launchd path. The services are declared restart: unless-stopped, so they come back when Docker Desktop starts. If you want them up at login, enable Docker Desktop’s own “Start when you log in” setting.

This page is kept separate from Linux rather than being a pointer to it, because Apple Silicon packaging quirks or a native launchd path could land here later without restructuring anything.