Installation

Homebrew (recommended)

Homebrew is the easiest way to install podkit. It installs podkit and its only runtime dependency (FFmpeg) in a single command.

One-liner
Two-step

brew install jvgomg/podkit/podkit

brew tap jvgomg/podkit
brew install podkit

Verify the installation:

podkit --version

That’s it — you’re ready to go. Continue to Quick Start to set up your first sync.

What Homebrew installs

podkit — the CLI binary with all native dependencies statically linked
FFmpeg — installed automatically as a dependency (required for transcoding)

No other runtime dependencies are needed.

Manual Download

If you don’t use Homebrew, you can download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases.

Download the tarball for your platform (e.g., podkit-darwin-arm64.tar.gz)
Extract it:
Terminal window
```
tar xzf podkit-*.tar.gz
```
Move the binary somewhere on your PATH:
Terminal window
```
sudo mv podkit /usr/local/bin/podkit
```
Verify it works:
Terminal window
```
podkit --version
```

Install FFmpeg manually

Manual installs do not include FFmpeg. You need to install it separately for transcoding to work.

brew install ffmpeg

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ffmpeg

sudo dnf install -y \
  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install -y ffmpeg

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

Check that FFmpeg has AAC encoder support:

ffmpeg -encoders 2>/dev/null | grep aac

You should see at least one AAC encoder listed. On macOS, you’ll typically see both aac (native) and aac_at (AudioToolbox).

Supported Devices

podkit works with classic iPods that use USB Mass Storage mode. iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) are not supported. See Supported Devices for the full compatibility matrix.

Building from Source

If you’re a developer or want to build podkit yourself, see the Development Setup guide.