Install MAX

As shown below, you can install MAX as a conda package using magic—a virtual environment manager that supports both conda and PyPI packages. But if you just want to start building stuff, instead check out our tutorials, which also show how to install MAX.

Install Magic

Magic is a package manager and virtual environment tool that builds upon the conda and PyPI packaging ecosystems to ensure that your MAX and Mojo builds are consistent and reproducible.

You can install the magic CLI on macOS and Ubuntu Linux with this command:

curl -ssL https://magic.modular.com/ | bash
curl -ssL https://magic.modular.com/ | bash

Then run the source command that's printed in your terminal.

This page uses magic to install MAX, but you can also install MAX with conda.

Install a stable build

For most projects, we recommend installing our latest stable release. You can also select which version you want, and magic makes it easy to install a different version of MAX for each project. (Each MAX version is described in the MAX changelog.)

For example, here's how to create a new project and install MAX:

Create a my-project directory with magic init:

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

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.

Or, you can specify the version using Python version operators. For example, here's how to pin your project to version 24.6:
```
magic add "max==24.6"
```
```
magic add "max==24.6"
```

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__)'

24.6.0

24.6.0

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

Install a nightly build

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 install max from the nightly channel: https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly/.

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

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/"]
```

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

GitHub nightly branch

When using a nightly build, make sure you also checkout the nightly branch when you clone the MAX repo or Mojo repo. For example:

git clone -b nightly https://github.com/modularml/max.git
git clone -b nightly https://github.com/modularml/max.git

Uninstall MAX

If you installed MAX with magic, just delete the project paths that you created with magic init (paths with a pyproject.toml, mojoproject.toml, or pixi.toml file).

To remove the magic tool, delete the magic binary:

rm ~/.modular/bin/magic
rm ~/.modular/bin/magic

That's it.

To uninstall the old modular CLI, click here

The modular tool is deprecated and you should switch to magic.

If you installed MAX with the modular CLI, first use the modular uninstall command to remove the max or mojo packages and configurations:

modular uninstall max

modular uninstall max

That removes the executable tools and configurations, but it leaves the MAX Python package, the Modular CLI tool, and some other files.

To remove everything else, use these commands:

Uninstall the MAX Python package. You can do this in one of two ways:
- Delete your virtual environment completely, which removes the max-engine Python packages along with any other dependencies. For example:
  - venv
  - conda
  rm -rf ~/max-venv
  rm -rf ~/max-venv
  conda env remove --name max
  conda env remove --name max
- Or, keep the virtual environment and delete just the max-engine packages inside:
  - venv
  - conda
  source ~/max-venv/bin/activate
  source ~/max-venv/bin/activate
  conda activate max
  conda activate max
  pip uninstall max-engine max-engine-libs -y
  pip uninstall max-engine max-engine-libs -y

Uninstall the modular CLI:

Mac
Linux

brew uninstall modular

brew uninstall modular

sudo apt update && sudo apt remove modular -y
sudo apt update && sudo apt remove modular -y

Delete the Modular home directory:
```
rm -rf ~/.modular
```
```
rm -rf ~/.modular
```

That should do it for situations in which you're troubleshooting your installation and want to reinstall from scratch.

If you want to remove absolutely all trace of MAX, here are a few more actions:

Delete the lines that mention MODULAR_HOME and .modular in ~/.bash_rc, ~/.bash_profile, or ~/.zshrc.

Remove the Modular repository name:

Mac
Linux

brew untap modularml/packages/modular

brew untap modularml/packages/modular

sudo rm -rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d/modular-installer.list
sudo rm -rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d/modular-installer.list

If you used Jupyter notebooks with Mojo, delete the Mojo kernels:

jupyter kernelspec list

jupyter kernelspec list

jupyter kernelspec remove <KERNEL_NAME>
jupyter kernelspec remove <KERNEL_NAME>

Uninstall the Mojo VS Code extension via the VS Code extensions tab.

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.

Install Magic​

Install a stable build​

Install a nightly build​

Uninstall MAX​

Next steps​

Install Magic

Install a stable build

Install a nightly build

Uninstall MAX

Next steps