Local Dev Setup

How to maintain a local Muse development environment that survives install/uninstall testing.

The problem

The curl | sh installer creates a venv at ~/.local/share/muse/venv and symlinks ~/.local/bin/muse into it. Running uninstall.sh wipes that venv. If your dev install lives in the same venv, it gets wiped too. Running pip install -e against the system pip doesn't help — the muse binary uses the venv pip, not the system one.

The fix is two separate setups with ~/bin taking PATH priority over ~/.local/bin.

Dev setup (one-time)

# Create a dedicated dev venv in the muse repo
python3.14 -m venv ~/ecosystem/muse/.venv

# Editable install — any change to ~/ecosystem/muse is instantly live
~/ecosystem/muse/.venv/bin/pip install -e ~/ecosystem/muse

# Symlink into ~/bin (takes PATH priority over ~/.local/bin)
mkdir -p ~/bin
ln -sf ~/ecosystem/muse/.venv/bin/muse ~/bin/muse

Then ensure ~/bin comes after ~/.local/bin in your ~/.zshrc so it takes precedence (last export PATH= wins):

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"   # ← must be last so ~/bin wins

After source ~/.zshrc, which muse should return ~/bin/muse.

Verifying the dev setup

which muse
# → /Users/gabriel/bin/muse

~/ecosystem/muse/.venv/bin/python3 -c "import muse; print(muse.__file__)"
# → /Users/gabriel/ecosystem/muse/muse/__init__.py

The second check confirms the venv resolves muse to the live source, not a cached sdist.

Testing install / uninstall

The default installer targets ~/.local/share/muse/venv and ~/.local/bin/muse. Since ~/bin/muse takes PATH priority, the dev setup is invisible to the installer and survives uninstall cleanly.

# Install a release build (uses ~/.local/share/muse/venv — not your dev venv)
curl -fsSL https://staging.musehub.ai/install.sh | sh

# Test it (use full path since ~/bin/muse shadows it in PATH)
~/.local/bin/muse --version

# Uninstall (wipes ~/.local/share/muse/venv and ~/.local/bin/muse — dev venv untouched)
curl -fsSL https://staging.musehub.ai/uninstall.sh | sh

# Confirm dev setup still works
muse --version   # resolves to ~/bin/muse → ~/ecosystem/muse/.venv

To test against prod instead of staging, swap the URL:

curl -fsSL https://musehub.ai/install.sh | sh

After shipping a new muse build

When a new sdist is uploaded to staging, test the full install/uninstall cycle:

1. curl -fsSL https://staging.musehub.ai/install.sh | sh — installs release build
2. ~/.local/bin/muse --version — confirm version matches what was shipped
3. Run any smoke tests against ~/.local/bin/muse
4. curl -fsSL https://staging.musehub.ai/uninstall.sh | sh — clean up
5. muse --version — confirm dev setup is intact

What the venvs contain

~/.muse/ (identity store, local repos) is never touched by either script.