The dependency-free electrobun npm package is a small Hutch entry point for npm, pnpm, Yarn, and Bun users. It contains no Electrobun runtime, SDK, or platform-specific npm dependency. On first use, the electrobun command reads the hutch-artifacts.json index for its exact version, downloads the host's matching Hutch archive from the indexed immutable Electrobun GitHub Release URL, checks its byte length and SHA-256 digest against that index entry, caches the extracted launcher and engine safely, and delegates all commands to hutch electrobun. electrobun init additionally ensures a compatible global Hutch launcher is present for the generated project's hutch run ... tasks; init itself still runs through the exact private cache.

Create a project from the current stable template catalog:

npx electrobun init

Use the beta catalog only when you ask for it:

npx electrobun init --beta

The npm bootstrap supplies the exact Hutch and Electrobun defaults paired with its own release version. Those defaults are not overrides: published templates include an exact electrobun.version, and an exact // @hutch pragma or product pin in hutch.config.ts always wins. In an unpinned hand-written project, the installed package version selects the toolchain for npm-launched commands, so the single electrobun dependency and its immutable GitHub Release assets ride the project lockfile together. Hutch downloads the matching runtime and SDK into the shared ~/.hutch/releases/electrobun store and projects the SDKs into the project's .hutch/devkit sysroot. Hutch's paired Cottontail is the build-time runtime; the Cottontail bundled into an app is separately pinned by that resolved Electrobun devkit. Installing a beta bootstrap still uses stable templates unless init receives --beta.

DASH_RELEASE_OFFLINE=1 prevents this bootstrap from downloading a missing Hutch archive. A previously verified cached copy can still run, but electrobun init requires network access for the current template catalog and selected template. Builds can run without network access only when every exact release and managed toolchain they require is already installed. The flag does not put Hutch's built-in dependency resolver or an external project package manager into offline mode.

You can install Hutch directly from https://hutch.blackboard.sh and run the same commands without npm: