Install

To use OpenVM for generating proofs, you must install the OpenVM command line tool cargo-openvm either via Git URL or by cloning the repo and building from source manually. Prior to either approach, you should make sure you have the necessary Installation Prerequisites.

Skip below for instructions on installing cargo-openvm with Nvidia GPU support.

Installation

Installation Prerequisites

Prior to installing cargo-openvm, make sure you have the following packages installed:

# install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
. "$HOME/.cargo/env"
 
# install nightly Rust toolchain for binary builds
rustup install nightly-2025-08-02
rustup component add rust-src --toolchain nightly-2025-08-02
 
# install build tools for Ubuntu
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential   # gcc, g++, make, libc headers
 
# install Solidity compiler, only needed for EVM proofs
cargo install --version 0.5.7 svm-rs
# Add the binary to your path
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
 
# Install solc 0.8.19
svm install 0.8.19

Option 1: Install Via Git URL (Recommended)

Begin the installation:

cargo +1.86 install --locked --git https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git --tag v1.4.1 cargo-openvm

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version

Option 2: Build from source

To build from source, clone the repository and begin the installation.

git clone --branch v1.4.1 --single-branch https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git
cd openvm
cargo install --locked --force --path crates/cli

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version

Installation with Nvidia GPU Support

It is possible to install the OpenVM CLI with support for Nvidia GPUs. This requires installation on a machine with an Nvidia GPU and associated drivers (see Installation Prerequisites (CUDA))

With this version of the CLI, the prove app and prove stark commands will utilize the Nvidia GPU for hardware acceleration. Currently only single GPU support is available through the CLI.

Installation Prerequisites (CUDA)

You will need all of the common prerequisites listed above. In addition, you will need to have a machine with

• Nvidia GPU drivers installed
• CUDA toolkit installed

For machines running Ubuntu 24.04, you can install Nvidia drivers using

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2404/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt-get update
 
sudo apt-get install -y cuda-drivers

To check that CUDA drivers are installed, run

nvidia-smi

CUDA toolkit can be installed using the following command, assuming the keyring above has already been installed:

sudo apt-get install -y cuda-toolkit-12-9
export PATH="/usr/local/cuda-12.9/bin:$PATH"

To check that CUDA toolkit is installed, run

nvcc --version

The OpenVM CLI has been tested with CUDA toolkit version 12.9, and this is the version we recommend installing. The CLI has not yet been tested with CUDA toolkit version 13.0.

Post-installation, ensure that you set the proper path variables for CUDA:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda-12.9/lib64${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}

Option 1: Install Via Git URL (Recommended)

Begin the installation:

cargo +1.86 install --locked --git https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git --tag v1.4.1 --features cuda cargo-openvm

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version

Option 2: Build from source

To build from source, clone the repository and begin the installation.

git clone --branch v1.4.1 --single-branch https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git
cd openvm
cargo install --locked --force --path crates/cli --features cuda

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version

Installation with Experimental Features

For the best execution performance, the CLI may be installed with optimizations that utilize experimental Rust features. These optimizations may be enabled on top of the standard CPU installation as well as the Nvidia GPU installation. We provide installation instructions for both versions, assuming the prerequisites (CPU, GPU) are already met.

This installation requires a nightly Rust toolchain. To install the nightly toolchain, run:

rustup install nightly-2025-08-19

Option 1: Install Via Git URL (Recommended)

Begin the installation:

cargo +nightly-2025-08-19 install --locked --git https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git --tag v1.4.1 --features tco cargo-openvm

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version

Option 2: Build from source

To build from source, first clone the repository.

git clone --branch v1.4.1 --single-branch https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm.git
cd openvm

Then begin the installation:

cargo +nightly-2025-08-19 install --locked --force --path crates/cli --features tco

This will globally install cargo-openvm. You can validate a successful installation with:

cargo openvm --version