Installation Guide

Build the installer from source, or install the pre-built package.

Installing the Pre-Built Installer

If you have a HippopotamooseSetup.exe installer file, installation is straightforward:

Run the installer

Double-click HippopotamooseSetup.exe. Accept the default path (C:\Program Files\Hippopotamoose). Keep both dependency checkboxes ticked.

Wait for dependencies

Node.js installs silently. WebCopy installs. Claude CLI, Wrangler, and Playwright Chromium are extracted and configured by the post-install script. This takes 2–4 minutes.

Launch the app

Tick "Launch Hippopotamoose" on the final screen, or open it from the Start Menu under Hippopotamoose.

Configure API keys

Open ⚙ Settings and enter your Cloudflare and Google Places credentials. See the API Keys Reference for details.

Building from Source

To build a new HippopotamooseSetup.exe from the source code, you need:

Step 1 — Stage Dependencies (first time only)

The stage-bundle.ps1 script downloads all runtime dependencies and packs them into Native/bundle/. This only needs to run once, or when you want to update dependencies.

cd "E:\All In One App\Native"
.\stage-bundle.ps1

This downloads: Node.js LTS MSI, Cyotek WebCopy EXE, Claude Code CLI (npm pack), Wrangler (npm pack), and Playwright Chromium.

ℹ️

If the bundle/ directory already contains all dependencies, you can skip this step when rebuilding by adding -SkipBundle.

Step 2 — Build the Installer

cd "E:\All In One App\Native"
.\build.ps1 -SkipBundle

The build script:

  1. Verifies Python, PyInstaller, and Inno Setup are available
  2. Runs PyInstaller to freeze the Python app into Native/frozen/Hippopotamoose/
  3. Runs Inno Setup to compile the installer into Native/output/HippopotamooseSetup.exe

Build Parameters

ParameterEffect
-SkipBundleSkip downloading dependencies. Use when bundle/ already exists.
-SkipFreezeSkip PyInstaller freeze. Use when only the installer packaging changed.
-CleanDelete frozen/ and output/ before building for a clean rebuild.

What the Installer Does

The Inno Setup installer (installer.iss) performs these actions:

  1. Installs the frozen Python app to {autopf}\Hippopotamoose\
  2. Silently installs Node.js LTS MSI
  3. Silently installs Cyotek WebCopy
  4. Extracts the bundled Playwright Chromium to {autopf}\Hippopotamoose\ms-playwright\
  5. Runs post-install.ps1 to install Claude Code CLI and Wrangler from their bundled tarballs using npm
  6. Creates a Start Menu entry under Hippopotamoose
  7. Creates an uninstaller entry in Programs & Features

Uninstalling

Open Settings → Apps & Features in Windows, find "Hippopotamoose", and click Uninstall. This removes the application files. Your data directories (downloaded_sites/, edited_sites/, etc.) are NOT removed — they remain at the installation path. Delete them manually if you want a complete removal.

💡

Before uninstalling to move to a new machine, export your API keys and data from Settings. See the Export & Import guide.