Binzaar

bin (binary) + bazaar (market) — a tiny local marketplace that trades release binaries.

Binzaar is a single-binary, local "app store" for Go micro-apps. It browses a GitHub-hosted catalog, installs the right release binary for your OS/architecture with SHA-256 verification, and tracks, updates, re-verifies, and uninstalls what you've installed — plus scaffolds new micro-apps from templates and can drop an embedded Claude Code starter kit into any directory (binzaar init).

One shared domain, three faces:

• a tview terminal UI for interactive browsing and management,
• an MCP stdio server so LLM clients can drive the same use-cases,
• an embedded bbolt database — no server, no cgo, just one local data file.

Binzaar is online-only — the catalog is always fetched live; only your installs and the app's own config are persisted. See docs/SPECIFICATIONS.md for the full product contract.

Concept

• Standalone micro-app, shipped as one binary. A single executable that runs completely locally — no daemon, no embedded web server, no second process required to function.
• No SaaS, no accounts, no backend. Everything lives on your machine; the only persistence is a local embedded database (bbolt) holding your installs and config. Your data never leaves the box.
• Full MCP support. Every use-case is exposed over an MCP stdio server, so an LLM client can browse, install, update, verify, and scaffold on your behalf — the exact same surface the TUI uses.
• Terminal-native. A tview TUI gives you interactive browse-and-manage entirely in your shell; no GUI, no browser.
• One domain, three faces. TUI · MCP · embedded bbolt all sit over a single use-case layer, so the human and the LLM drive identical behavior.
• Trust by default. Installs match your host GOOS/GOARCH automatically and are SHA-256 verified against the release's checksums before anything lands on disk; unverifiable assets are refused unless you explicitly allow them.
• Online-only, GitHub-backed. The catalog and every binary/tarball come live from GitHub — outbound HTTPS client I/O only (like git or go install), never a hosted service.
• Self-hosting. Binzaar lists itself in the catalog, so it installs and updates itself alongside the apps it manages.
• A forge, not just a shelf. Scaffold brand-new micro-apps from catalog templates and hand off to the spec-driven /product-idea workflow, or drop the embedded Claude Code kit into any directory with binzaar init.
• Self-growing via Claude Code. Binzaar doesn't only distribute apps — it grows the catalog. Scaffolding initiates an application with Claude Code's spec-driven workflow (/product-idea → /app-init → /app-spec-sync), so each new micro-app is born in the same shape, specified before it's built, and can be published back to the marketplace it came from — the store expands itself.
• Spec is the contract. docs/SPECIFICATIONS.md defines observable behavior; code and spec change together.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Techthos/binzaar/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

The installer detects your OS/arch, downloads the latest release binary, verifies its SHA-256 against the .sha256 sidecar, and installs it as microapp-binzaar into ~/.local/share/binzaar/bin (warning if that directory is not on your PATH).

Environment overrides:

Variable	Default	Purpose
BINZAAR_VERSION	latest	Release tag to install (e.g. v0.2.0)
BINZAAR_INSTALL_DIR	~/.local/share/binzaar/bin	Target directory
BINZAAR_REPO	Techthos/binzaar	owner/name to install from
BINZAAR_GITHUB_TOKEN	—	Token for private repos / higher rate limits (GITHUB_TOKEN also honored)

Prerequisites

• Go (toolchain that satisfies go.mod).
• Optional, for make fmt / make lint:

  go install mvdan.cc/gofumpt@latest
  go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@latest

  make reports which are missing rather than failing silently.

Getting started

make build    # go build ./...
make run      # go run .
make test     # go test ./... -race -cover
make fmt      # gofumpt -w .
make lint     # golangci-lint run
make tidy     # go mod tidy
make check    # fmt + tidy + lint + test, in sequence

Run a single test:

go test ./... -run TestName -race -v

Configuration

• BINZAAR_GITHUB_TOKEN — optional GitHub token; raises rate limits and enables private repos. Anonymous access is used when unset.

Layout

This repo starts flat (main.go) and grows internal/ packages as the spec is implemented:

models  ←  db  ←  server
            ↑
           tui

internal/models is storage-agnostic; internal/db is the only package that touches bbolt; both internal/server (MCP) and internal/tui go through internal/db. See CLAUDE.md and .claude/rules/ for the layer rules.

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Built and maintained by Techthos.