vestige/docs/INSTALL-INTEL-MAC.md
2026-05-01 13:33:54 -05:00

2.5 KiB

Intel Mac Installation

The Intel Mac (x86_64-apple-darwin) binary links dynamically against a system ONNX Runtime instead of a prebuilt ort-sys library. Microsoft is discontinuing x86_64 macOS prebuilts after ONNX Runtime v1.23.0, so we use the ort-dynamic feature to runtime-link against the version you install locally. This keeps Vestige working on Intel Mac without waiting for a dead upstream.

Prerequisite

Install ONNX Runtime via Homebrew:

brew install onnxruntime

Install

# 1. Install the binary
npm install -g vestige-mcp-server@latest

# 2. Point the binary at Homebrew's libonnxruntime
echo 'export ORT_DYLIB_PATH="'"$(brew --prefix onnxruntime)"'/lib/libonnxruntime.dylib"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# 3. Verify
vestige-mcp --version

# 4. Connect to Claude Code
claude mcp add vestige vestige-mcp -s user

ORT_DYLIB_PATH is how the ort crate's load-dynamic feature finds the shared library at runtime. Without it the binary starts but fails on the first embedding call with a "could not find libonnxruntime" error.

Building from source

brew install onnxruntime
git clone https://github.com/samvallad33/vestige && cd vestige
cargo build --release -p vestige-mcp \
  --no-default-features \
  --features ort-dynamic,vector-search
export ORT_DYLIB_PATH="$(brew --prefix onnxruntime)/lib/libonnxruntime.dylib"
./target/release/vestige-mcp --version

Troubleshooting

dyld: Library not loaded: libonnxruntime.dylibORT_DYLIB_PATH is not set for the shell that spawned vestige-mcp. Claude Code / Codex inherits the env vars from whatever launched it; export ORT_DYLIB_PATH in ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc and restart the client.

error: ort-sys does not provide prebuilt binaries for the target x86_64-apple-darwin — you hit this only if you ran cargo build without the --no-default-features --features ort-dynamic,vector-search flags. The default feature set still tries to download a non-existent prebuilt. Add the flags and rebuild.

Homebrew installed onnxruntime but brew --prefix onnxruntime prints nothing — upgrade brew (brew update) and retry. Older brew formulae used onnx-runtime (hyphenated). If your brew still has the hyphenated formula, substitute accordingly in the commands above.

Long-term

Intel Mac will move to a fully pure-Rust backend (ort-candle) in Vestige v2.1, removing the Homebrew prerequisite entirely. Track progress at issue #41.