Miniforge

This repository holds the minimal installers for Conda and Mamba specific to conda-forge, with the following features pre-configured:

• Packages in the base environment are obtained from the conda-forge channel.
• The conda-forge channel is set as the default (and only) channel.

We put an emphasis on supporting various CPU architectures (x86_64, ppc64le, and aarch64 including Apple Silicon) as well as the stability of this installer.

Goals

The goal of this installer is to provide you with an entry point to the conda and mamba commands. If these two commands execute correctly, then this installer has achieved its goal.

If you have issues with specific packages, please report them to the associated feedstock. You may find the feedstock associated with a package using our website

Usage

Miniforge provides installers for the commands conda and mamba. Once the installer for your OS and architecture has been executed, you should be able to use these commands in a terminal.

conda/mamba usable in any terminals

However, with the default choices of the Windows installer, these commands are only available in the "Miniforge Prompt". To be able to use these commands in other terminals, one needs to initialize conda for your shell by running in the Miniforge Prompt.

conda init

Note that one can also just add the C:\Users\myusername\miniforge3\condabin\ folder to the path environment variable manually so conda and mamba may be used more conveniently from any command prompt with limited chance of software conflicts.

The same situation arises on Unix if you use the non-interactive install. Initialization can be done by calling conda with its full path, with something like

~/miniforge3/bin/conda init

Automatic activation of environments

By default, once conda has been initialized for your shell, the base environment is activated so that the command python corresponds to the base Python provided by Miniforge and conda install installs packages in the base environment. This can be convenient for but it is cleaner to deactivate this automatic activation with

conda config --set auto_activate_base false

and use conda or mamba to create and activate other environments, with for example (to create an environment called my_project)

conda create --name my_project jupyterlab numpy pandas
conda activate my_project
# Now you can start jupyter lab
jupyter lab

Finally, it is also possible to add to your shell configuration file (typically ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc on Unix; on Windows, edit with notepad $PROFILE) the activation command.

Requirements and installers

Latest installers with Python 3.12 (*) in the base environment:

| OS | Architecture | Minimum Version | File | | ------- | ----------------------------- | --------------- | ----------------------------------- | | Linux | x86_64 (amd64) | glibc >= 2.17 | Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh | | Linux | aarch64 (arm64) (**) | glibc >= 2.17 | Miniforge3-Linux-aarch64.sh | | Linux | ppc64le (POWER8/9) | glibc >= 2.17 | Miniforge3-Linux-ppc64le.sh | | macOS | x86_64 | macOS >= 10.13 | Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.{sh,pkg} | | macOS | arm64 (Apple Silicon) (***) | macOS >= 11.0 | Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.{sh,pkg} | | Windows | x86_64 (****) | Windows >= 10 | Miniforge3-Windows-x86_64.exe |

(*) The Python version is specific only to the base environment. Conda can create new environments with different Python versions and implementations.

(**) For Raspberry PI that include a 64 bit processor, you must also use a 64-bit operating system such as Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit or Ubuntu for Raspberry PI. The versions listed as "System: 32-bit" are not compatible with the installers on this website.

(***) Apple silicon builds are experimental and haven't had testing like the other platforms.

(****) The Windows installer requires Windows 10 or later. However, we are unsure exactly what version of Windows 10. We need help from users to maintain the backlog of windows questions.

Install

Windows

We need help from activate users and willing maintainers!

Download and execute the Windows installer. Follow the prompts, taking note of the option to "Create start menu shortcuts". The most convenient and tested way to use the installed software (such as commands conda and mamba) is via the "Miniforge Prompt" installed to the start menu.

If you require conda to be accessible to other software, you may consider the option to "Add Miniforge3 to my PATH environment variable". The latter is not selected by default due to the potential of serious conflicts with other software. See https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/issues/520 and https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/issues/453.

There are known issues with the usage of special characters and spaces in the installation location, see for example https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/issues/484 and https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/issues/593. We recommend users install in a directory without any such characters in the name.

For non-interactive usage one can use the batch install option:

start /wait "" Miniforge3-Windows-x86_64.exe /InstallationType=JustMe /RegisterPython=0 /S /D=%UserProfile%\Miniforge3

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets developers use both Windows and Linux at the same time on a Windows machine. WSL users should make sure they are in a Linux terminal window (not Powershell) and use the Linux installer appropriate for the computer's architecture as described in the instructions in the next section.

Unix-like platforms (macOS, Linux, & WSL)

From a terminal window, download the installer appropriate for your computer's architecture using curl or wget or your favorite program.

For example:

curl -L -O "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh"

or

wget "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh"

Run the script with:

bash Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh

The interactive installation will prompt you to initialize conda with your shell. This is typically with recommended workflow.

For non-interactive install (for example on a CI), the following command can be used (call with -h to list the extra options):

bash Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh -b

In non-interactive installations, the conda initialization commands will not be run by default.

Note that Miniforge has been repacked by other package managers such as Homebrew(https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/miniforge). However this can lead to many incompatibilities that we do not test for. As such, we do not recommend using Homebrew to install Miniforge.

macOS (PKG installers)

PKG installers are available for macOS as of 2026. They are signed and notarized with NumFOCUS certificates. Download and execute the PKG installer for Apple Silicon. or Intel, and follow the steps on screen by pressing Continue.

By the 4th screen, you can choose a different installation path by clicking on "Change Install Location". Other options may be available behind the "Customise" button.

Once ready, click on Install. If everything went according to plan, the Summary page will report success.

For unattended installs, please use the SH installers mentioned in the section above.

As part of a CI pipeline

If you wish to download the appropriate installer through the command line in a more automated fashion, you may wish to a command similar to

For Linux, any architecture, use the following command

wget -O Miniforge3.sh "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh"

For macOS, any architecture, use the following command

curl -fsSLo Miniforge3.sh "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-MacOSX-$(uname -m).sh"

This will download the appropriate installer for the present architecture with the filename Miniforge3.sh. Run the shell script with the command in batch mode with the -b flag:

bash Miniforge3.sh -b -p "${HOME}/conda"

-p is prefix option. A directory will be created on "${HOME}/conda".

Then you should create the path to conda and activate conda. Run this command:

source "${HOME}/conda/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
# For mamba support also run the fol