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Install wind (Windows)

wind is the Wind Stream CLI. Instead of launching your coding tool directly, you run wind up — it prepares the worktree and session manifest, then launches your selected coding agent. Claude Code and Codex have connected MCP, connect, and trace-return paths. Once you're installed and connected, Getting started walks through the full loop.

On macOS or Linux? See install.md. This guide is PowerShell-first.

Prerequisites

  • Claude Code or Codex CLI installed and signed in
  • git, and gh (the GitHub CLI) authenticated — used by wind up to work with your repos on GitHub; public binary downloads do not require a GitHub login
  • A Wind Stream account with MCP access (token generated in step 2)
  • Windows Terminal recommended — wind surf / wind down use a full-screen raw-mode TUI, which is happiest on ConPTY (Windows Terminal / modern PowerShell). Legacy conhost may not render or restore it cleanly.

1. Install the binary

Direct download

Download wind-windows-x64.exe and SHA256SUMS from Releases into the same folder. Once the repository is public, this needs no GitHub login. Until then, download with the authenticated GitHub CLI:

gh release download <tag> --repo windstreamai/wind-cli --pattern 'wind-windows-x64.exe' --pattern 'SHA256SUMS' --clobber

From the download folder (for either download method):

Unblock-File .\wind-windows-x64.exe          # clears the "downloaded from the internet" block (mark-of-the-web)

# Verify before installing; stop if the checksum differs or is missing.
$expected = (Get-Content .\SHA256SUMS | Where-Object { $_ -match '  wind-windows-x64\.exe$' }) -replace '  .*$', ''
$actual = (Get-FileHash .\wind-windows-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()
if (-not $expected -or $actual -ne $expected) { throw "wind checksum mismatch" }

# put it on PATH as wind.exe — a folder already on PATH, e.g. %USERPROFILE%\bin
mkdir $HOME\bin -Force
Move-Item .\wind-windows-x64.exe $HOME\bin\wind.exe -Force

Find the current <tag> with:

gh release view --repo windstreamai/wind-cli

If $HOME\bin isn't on your PATH yet, add it once (then open a new terminal):

setx PATH "$($env:PATH);$HOME\bin"

Confirm it runs — and that it's the version you just installed:

wind -v          # the version you installed — a stale wind.exe earlier on PATH is the #1 trap

Two Windows gotchas:

  • An unsigned .exe may trip SmartScreen on first run — choose More info → Run anyway.
  • You can't overwrite a running wind.exe (Windows locks it). If Move-Item fails with "in use / access denied," close any running wind, or rename-then-replace: 
    Rename-Item $HOME\bin\wind.exe wind.old.exe   # Windows allows renaming a running exe
Move-Item .\wind-windows-x64.exe $HOME\bin\wind.exe
Remove-Item $HOME\bin\wind.old.exe

winget (pending)

The winget listing requires a separate submission and install verification after the distribution repos become public. Use the direct download above until that listing is live.

2. Connect to Wind Stream

Installing the binary does not deploy the Wind Stream integration — wind setup does. Sign in first with wind auth login (the terminal shows an address and a code; approve access in the browser; the credential is protected with DPAPI). Choose Codex first if that is your agent; otherwise Claude Code remains the default. Setup registers a local Wind Stream MCP bridge for the selected agent and uses the Codex-specific path when Codex is selected; that path leaves Claude configuration unchanged. The hooks and uploads still use a token in this release: generate one in Wind Stream under Settings → API Tokens and store it with wind auth login --token:

wind auth login
wind agent codex   # optional; omit for Claude Code
wind setup

Restart Claude Code after its setup path. For Codex, launch it once, open /hooks, and trust the Wind lifecycle hooks when prompted; the native MCP and $windstream-connect skill load on launch.

3. Verify

wind setup prints a readiness readout — every line should be a green ✓. The default Claude Code path looks like this:

wind <version>
Wind Stream
  ✓ Connected (https://app.windstream.ai)
  ✓ stored: dpapi                 # token in the Windows credential store
  ✓ MCP registered
Claude Code
  ✓ Ready (you@example.com)
  ✓ Commands deployed             # /windstream-connect is now available
  ✓ Hooks installed
Git / GitHub
  ✓ git
  ✓ gh (2.x)
  ✓ authenticated (your-handle)
  ✓ repo scope
  ✓ release access

With Codex selected, the middle of that readout is Codex-specific instead:

Wind Stream
  ✓ Codex MCP registered
Codex CLI
  ✓ Ready (codex-cli <version>)
  ✓ Connect skill deployed
  ✓ Lifecycle hooks installed

Hook installation is not the trust decision: open /hooks in Codex once and approve the Wind handlers.

Then confirm the rest (use the MCP command for your selected agent):

wind -v                 # the version you installed — a stale wind.exe earlier on PATH is the #1 trap
claude mcp list         # windstream → ✓ (connected)
codex mcp list          # windstream → enabled, bearer env WINDSTREAM_TOKEN
wind hook --selftest    # [ok] git spawn / manifest / token / api reachable
wind status             # readiness of installed coding tools

In Claude Code (after the restart) type / — /windstream-connect should be in the list. In Codex, invoke $windstream-connect and use /hooks to confirm the Wind hooks are trusted. If the selected connect entry is missing, re-run wind setup from the installed binary.

Finally, smoke the TUI and confirm it restores your terminal on exit:

wind surf "hello"       # full-screen UI opens (header + thread + composer)

Type a line, try /menu and /open, then /exit — the prompt should return clean (no leftover raw-mode, no garbled screen). Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D should also exit and leave the terminal usable.

Use it

From a repo with a release/<version> branch, start a connected session:

wind up <release> <slug>   # worktree off release/<release> + a connected agent session
wind agent codex           # make Codex the default launcher; re-run wind setup after changing it
wind surf <topic>          # deliberate with Wind Stream in your terminal, any time
wind down                  # capture the retrospective for the session

See Getting started for the full loop.

Notes

  • Updating: repeat the download and verification steps above — replace $HOME\bin\wind.exe with the new build (Move-Item … -Force, or rename-then-replace if it's running), then re-run wind setup (idempotent). Restart Claude Code after its setup path; Codex reads its user configuration on the next launch. Always check wind -v afterward.
  • Terminal host: if the TUI renders garbled or won't restore under legacy conhost, switch to Windows Terminal (ConPTY).
  • Troubleshooting: the readout above (from wind setup) is the health check — every ✓ line is confirmation, not just a status. If something's off, wind doctor bundles the same state into a diagnostics file for a bug report; it's a snapshot for support, not a replacement for the readout.
  • wind factory: its verbs run the factory's bash and python scripts and need bash and python3 on PATH (the scripts themselves use gh, curl, and jq) — run them from WSL (or let GitHub Actions run them). wind factory install is plain file writing and is expected to work from PowerShell, but has not been exercised there; run it from WSL anyway, so the hook scripts it writes keep their executable bit when committed.
  • Non-default environments: set WIND_HOST to your Wind Stream host before wind setup (default: https://app.windstream.ai).