Installation

Dashdown is published to PyPI as dashdown-md, and the CLI it installs is the command dashdown. So you pip install dashdown-md (or uv tool install dashdown-md) but you run dashdown. It needs Python 3.10+.

Install the CLI globally — use it anywhere #

If you want dashdown on your PATH so you can scaffold and serve projects from any directory, install it as a uv tool. This is the "create a project anywhere on my machine" path:

uv tool install dashdown-md

Now dashdown works from any folder, in its own isolated environment (it won't clash with your projects' dependencies):

cd ~/anywhere
dashdown new my-dashboard      # scaffold a project here
dashdown serve my-dashboard    # → http://127.0.0.1:8000

Verify it's installed and on your PATH:

dashdown --version             # prints the installed version
uv tool list                   # shows dashdown-md and the `dashdown` executable
dashdown --help                # lists every command

The same global install with pipx instead of uv:

pipx install dashdown-md

Run it once, without installing #

To try Dashdown without installing anything, uvx runs the CLI in a throwaway environment:

uvx --from dashdown-md dashdown new my-dashboard
uvx --from dashdown-md dashdown serve my-dashboard

--from dashdown-md is required because the package and command names differ — it tells uvx which package provides the dashdown command.

Add it to a single project (pinned & reproducible) #

When you want everyone on a team to run the same Dashdown version, add it as a dependency of that project instead of installing globally — the version is pinned in the project's lockfile:

# uv
uv add dashdown-md
uv run dashdown serve .        # runs the project's pinned version

# pip (into an active virtualenv)
pip install dashdown-md
dashdown serve .

Connectors & features are optional extras #

The core install is deliberately lean. Each data connector and heavy feature pulls its dependencies only when you ask for it, via a pip extra:

uv tool install 'dashdown-md[postgres]'        # Postgres connector
uv tool install 'dashdown-md[postgres,excel,pdf]'   # several at once

The same extras work with every install method:

uvx --from 'dashdown-md[postgres]' dashdown serve .   # one-off
uv add 'dashdown-md[postgres]'                        # per-project
pip install 'dashdown-md[postgres]'                   # pip

A few common ones — see Connectors for the full list, or run dashdown components --connectors to print every connector with its install extra:

uv tool install --force 'dashdown-md[postgres,pdf]'

Upgrade & uninstall #

# global (uv tool)
uv tool upgrade dashdown-md
uv tool uninstall dashdown-md

# per-project (uv)
uv add dashdown-md@latest
uv remove dashdown-md

# pip
pip install --upgrade dashdown-md
pip uninstall dashdown-md

Which method should I use? #

Next steps #

You have the dashdown command. Head to Getting started to scaffold a project, understand the project layout, and serve your first dashboard.