Installing Brownie

The recommended way to install Brownie is via pipx. Pipx is a tool to help you install and run end-user applications written in Python. It’s roughly similar to macOS’s brew, JavaScript’s npx, and Linux’s apt.

pipx installs Brownie into a virtual environment and makes it available directly from the commandline. Once installed, you will never have to activate a virtual environment prior to using Brownie.

pipx does not ship with Python. If you have not used it before you will probably need to install it.

To install pipx:

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

Note

You may need to restart your terminal after installing pipx.

To install Brownie using pipx:

pipx install eth-brownie

Once installation is complete, type brownie to verify that it worked:

$ brownie
Brownie - Python development framework for Ethereum

Usage:  brownie <command> [<args>...] [options <args>]

Other Installation Methods

You can also install Brownie via pip, or clone the repository and use setuptools. If you install via one of these methods, we highly recommend using venv and installing into a virtual environment.

To install via pip:

pip install eth-brownie

To clone the github repository and install via setuptools:

git clone https://github.com/eth-brownie/brownie.git
cd brownie
python3 setup.py install

Dependencies

Brownie has the following dependencies:

Tkinter

The Brownie GUI is built using the Tk GUI toolkit. Both Tk and tkinter are available on most Unix platforms, as well as on Windows systems.

Tk is not a strict dependency for Brownie. However, if it is not installed on your system you will receive an error when attempting to load the GUI.

You can use the following command to check that Tk has been correctly installed:

python -m tkinter

This should open a simple window and display the installed version number.

For installation instructions read Installing TK within the TK Documentation.