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v24.6

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Install MAX

You can install MAX as a conda package named max. As shown below, we recommend installing MAX with magic, a package manager and virtual environment manager that supports both conda and PyPI packages.

This page shows how to install MAX, but if you just want to start building stuff, instead check out our tutorials, which all include installation.

Stable release​

Magic makes it easy to install a different version of MAX for each project. When you create a project with magic, it adds the following conda channel to your project configuration by default:

https://conda.modular.com/max/
https://conda.modular.com/max/

Then you can install the latest stable build or pin your project to a specific version. For example:

  1. Create a my-project directory with magic init:

    magic init my-project --format pyproject
    magic init my-project --format pyproject

  2. Install MAX with magic add:

    cd my-project
    cd my-project
    magic add max
    magic add max

    This ensures that you always have the latest version of MAX.

    You can also specify the version using Python version operators. For example, here's how to pin your version to version 24.5:

    magic add "max==24.5"
    magic add "max==24.5"

That's it. You just installed MAX for your project's virtual environment.

You can check the installed max version like this:

magic run python3 -c 'from max import engine; print(engine.__version__)'
magic run python3 -c 'from max import engine; print(engine.__version__)'
24.5.0
24.5.0

To learn more about how to manage your packages and interact with the Magic virtual environment, see the Magic documentation.

Nightly release​

Nightly builds give you access to the bleeding-edge version of MAX. These builds include new features, but they're not fully tested, so they might include new bugs.

Fortunately, you can safely try a nightly build in one project without affecting your other projects, because every project you create with magic has its own package dependencies.

To install a nightly build, you just need to modify your project configuration to use the nightly channel:

https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly/
https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly/

For example, here's how to create a project with a nightly build:

  1. Create a new project and specify the max-nightly channel with the magic init -c option:

    magic init nightly-project --format pyproject \
      -c conda-forge -c https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly
    magic init nightly-project --format pyproject \
      -c conda-forge -c https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly

    When you include the -c (--channel) option, you must specify all channels for your project. Be sure to include conda-forge (or another conda channel) to install packages other than MAX.

    Or, manually edit the default max channel to use max-nightly. Either way, the pyproject.toml file in your project should include this:

    pyproject.toml
    [tool.pixi.project]
    channels = ["conda-forge", "https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly/"]
    [tool.pixi.project]
    channels = ["conda-forge", "https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly/"]

  2. Install MAX with magic add:

    cd nightly-project
    cd nightly-project
    magic add max
    magic add max

You should see the nightly version name with the build date. For example:

✔ Added max >=24.6.0.dev2024111705,<25
✔ Added max >=24.6.0.dev2024111705,<25

Next steps​

Get started with MAX

Learn how to accelerate and deploy your AI models with MAX using our tutorials.

Learn more about Magic

Discover everything that the Magic CLI has to offer for project management.