First-time machine setup

A complete walkthrough from a fresh Windows install to a working C++ project.

Assumptions

  • Windows 10 (1809+) or Windows 11, x64
  • A user account with normal (non-admin) rights
  • Network access

You do not need: Visual Studio, MSYS2, Chocolatey, Scoop, Python, Git, or anything else pre-installed.

Step 1 — Get luban.exe

Any of:

  • Download from GitHub Releases and put it in %USERPROFILE%\bin\luban.exe (or anywhere)
  • git clone + build from source if you already have a C++ toolchain (see Installation)

Open a fresh Command Prompt or PowerShell. Verify:

where luban
:: should print full path; if not, you need to use full path or add to PATH temporarily

Step 2 — Install the toolchain

luban setup

Expected output (truncated):

→ Ensuring canonical directories exist
✓ directories ready
→ Deploying seed manifests + selection
✓ overlays on disk: 3
→ Installing 5 component(s)
→ → llvm-mingw
→ download llvm-mingw-20260421-ucrt-x86_64.zip
  [########################] 100.0%  178.4 MiB/178.4 MiB  ...
→ extract llvm-mingw-20260421-ucrt-x86_64.zip
✓ installed llvm-mingw 20260421 → C:\Users\you\.local\share\luban\toolchains\llvm-mingw-20260421-x86_64
→ → cmake
...
→ → ninja
...
→ → mingit
...
→ → vcpkg
→ extract 2026.03.18.zip
→ bootstrapping vcpkg.exe (microsoft/vcpkg-tool)
✓ vcpkg.exe ready
✓ installed vcpkg 2026.03.18 → ...
✓ setup complete

Time: 3–5 minutes on a typical home connection. Most of it is downloading the LLVM-MinGW archive (~180 MB compressed).

Step 3 — Register on PATH

luban env --user

Output:

✓ added C:\Users\you\.local\share\luban\bin to HKCU PATH
✓ set HKCU LUBAN_DATA = C:\Users\you\.local\share\luban
✓ set HKCU LUBAN_CACHE = C:\Users\you\.cache\luban
✓ set HKCU LUBAN_STATE = C:\Users\you\.local\state\luban
✓ set HKCU LUBAN_CONFIG = C:\Users\you\.config\luban
✓ set HKCU VCPKG_ROOT = C:\Users\you\.local\share\luban\toolchains\vcpkg-2026.03.18-x86_64
· open a new shell for the changes to take effect.

⚠️ Critical: Close the current cmd/PowerShell window. Open a fresh one. The PATH change affects new processes, not the one running luban.

Step 4 — Verify

In your fresh shell:

cmake --version
:: cmake version 4.3.2

clang --version
:: clang version 22.1.4 ...

ninja --version
:: 1.13.2

clangd --version
:: clangd version 22.1.4 ...

vcpkg --version
:: vcpkg package management program version 2026-03-04-...

If any of these fail with "not recognized as a command":

  1. Confirm you opened a new terminal (the change doesn't propagate to running shells)
  2. luban doctor — should show all components ✓ and tools ✓ on PATH
  3. echo %PATH% — <data>\luban\bin should be near the front

Step 5 — Hello, world

mkdir %USERPROFILE%\projects
cd %USERPROFILE%\projects

luban new app hello
:: → Scaffolding app 'hello' at C:\Users\you\projects\hello
:: ✓ wrote 12 files
:: → running initial `luban build` to produce compile_commands.json
:: ...
:: ✓ build complete
:: → next: cd hello && nvim src/hello/main.cpp  (clangd ready out of the box)

cd hello
build\default\src\hello\hello.exe
:: hello from hello!

You're up. Open src\hello\main.cpp in your favorite editor; clangd should attach automatically and give autocomplete.

Where to next