Install Harp
Harp runs on Node.js, which is available for macOS, Windows, Linux, and SmartOS — start by installing it from the Node.js website if you don’t have it already. You don’t need to know any JavaScript to use Harp, just enough of the command line to run a few npm commands.
Access the command prompt using your terminal application:
- macOS: Applications → Utilities → Terminal
- Linux: Applications → Terminal (or your distro’s equivalent)
- Windows: the Node.js Command Prompt application that came with Node.js
Then run:
npm install -g harp
If you get a permission error (EACCES), the recommended fix is to install Node.js via a version manager like nvm, fnm, asdf, or Volta so global packages don’t require root. As a one-off workaround you can prefix the command with sudo, but mixing sudo npm with unprivileged npm calls can leave files owned by root and break later installs — fixing permissions properly is the safer path.
That’s it! Verify the install with:
harp -v
To start serving any folder of templates, point harp at that directory:
harp ./mysite
# Serving at http://localhost:9000
For the full set of commands, flags, and compile options, see the CLI reference.
Updating Harp
To update to the latest release, run the same install command — npm replaces the existing global version in place:
npm install -g harp
Verify the new version with harp -v.
Troubles upgrading? Try clearing your cache
If you’re having trouble upgrading — especially if you have recently upgraded npm, or are getting an error like Error: Cannot find module 'minify' — clear the npm cache and reinstall:
npm uninstall -g harp
npm cache clean --force
npm install -g harp
The npm cache clean step can take a moment depending on how much is cached.