Build bd (Beads CLI)

Install or upgrade the bd CLI tool with a fully static build to avoid shared library issues (e.g., ICU version mismatches across machines).

Usage

/build-bd

Steps

1. Check current version:

   bashCopy

   bd --version 2>/dev/null || echo "bd not installed"
   

2. Find the latest available version:

   bashCopy

   go list -m -json github.com/steveyegge/beads@latest 2>&1 | grep '"Version"'
   

3. If already on the latest version, report that and stop. Otherwise, proceed to build.

4. Build the latest version statically with CGO disabled (use the version from step 2):

   bashCopy

   CGO_ENABLED=0 go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest
   

   CGO_ENABLED=0 forces pure-Go alternatives for all dependencies (ICU regex, SQLite, etc.), producing a binary with zero shared library dependencies.

   macOS warning: CGO_ENABLED=0 can cause crashes (e.g., during bd init) due to CGO/SQLite incompatibilities on macOS. macOS users should use CGO_ENABLED=1 instead — see upstream docs/INSTALLING.md for details.

5. Verify:

   bashCopy

   bd --version
   # Linux:
   ldd "$(which bd)" 2>&1  # Should say "not a dynamic executable"
   # macOS:
   otool -L "$(which bd)"  # Should show no external library entries
   

Why static?

The bd binary uses go-icu-regex (CGo) which links against the system's ICU library. Different machines have different ICU versions (e.g., Homebrew's icu4c@77 vs system libicu76), causing runtime failures:

bd: error while loading shared libraries: libicui18n.so.77: cannot open shared object file

Static compilation eliminates this entirely.