Pixi Way

This is an alternative to the uv Way, for when you have downloaded the CAFE release and want to run it from that folder. Pixi creates an isolated environment and installs the correct Python (3.12) and every dependency for you — so you don’t need Python installed on your machine beforehand.

No Python required

You do not need to install Python 3.12 yourself for the Pixi (or Conda) route. Pixi reads pixi.toml and provisions the right Python automatically.

1. Install Pixi

For Mac/Linux:

Run the following command to install Pixi for Mac/Linux:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_VERSION=v0.72.0 bash

For Windows:

1. First run the following code:

iwr -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex

2. Then run the code below to restore Pixi to a specific version:

pixi self-update --version 0.72.0

Close and reopen your terminal after installing so the pixi command is found.

2. Get the CAFE files

Download and extract the CAFE release (see How to download), then open a terminal in the extracted ./CAFE folder — the one containing cafe.py and pixi.toml.

3. Run CAFE

From that folder, Pixi installs everything and launches the app in one step:

pixi run cafe

The app opens in your web browser automatically.