Installing GW on macOS

For best performance, install GW as a desktop application (Intel or Apple silicone), or build from source. Use one of the installers below, or head over to the GitHub Releases page.

GW Intel x86_64 mac dmg installer

GW Apple arm64 mac dmg installer

To install the desktop app, open one of the dmg files above then drop GW into your Applications folder, then perform the following:

  • In the Finder on your Mac, locate the app you want to open. Don’t use Launchpad to locate the app.
  • Control-click the GW app icon, then choose Open from the shortcut menu.
  • Click Open.

GW can also be copied to your bin directory if needs be to make it available as a command-line tool:

cp /Applications/gw.app/Contents/MacOS/gw /usr/local/bin

To install GW as a command-line tool, you have two primary options depending on your system architecture: using Conda or Homebrew. These instructions cover both Intel-based (x86_64) and Apple Silicon (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M2, etc.) Macs.

Using Conda (Intel chips)

For users who prefer using Conda , GW can be installed from the Conda-Forge and Bioconda channels. This method works for Intel architectures only. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

conda install -c conda-forge -c bioconda gw

Using Homebrew (Intel + Apple chips)

For those who prefer Homebrew, GW has a Homebrew tap available. This method is compatible with both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. Open your terminal and run:

brew install kcleal/homebrew-gw/gw

Building from source

Before building GW, you need to install the glfw3 and htslib libraries. These can be easily installed using Conda, and optionally, setting the CONDA_PREFIX environment variable is advised so gw can find the required libraries.

conda install -c conda-forge -c bioconda glfw htslib
export CONDA_PREFIX=~/miniconda3

Next clone the GW repository and build GW:

git clone https://github.com/kcleal/gw.git && cd gw
make prep && make -j8

Also, it is recommended to add GW to your bin directory:

cp gw /usr/local/bin


After installation, you can verify that GW has been installed correctly by running:

gw --version