Prerequisites

Skim is distributed as source and built with the Zig toolchain. You need two things on your PATH:

Zig 0.16.0

Skim targets Zig 0.16.0 or later. Install it from ziglang.org/download, your package manager, or a version manager such as mise.

Verify the version:

zig version
# 0.16.0

Note

Zig’s language and build system still change between releases. If you hit build errors, confirm you’re on 0.16.0 rather than an older or much newer release.

Git

Skim shells out to git for every diff it renders, so git must be installed and available in your PATH. Any recent version works.

git --version

Because Skim runs git in your current working directory, it automatically respects your existing git configuration, including diff settings, pager config, and credentials.

Optional

• Graphite (gt): enables the stacked-PR navigation described in Graphite stacks.
• An $EDITOR: used by the Ctrl-g editor integration.
• An agent CLI (e.g. Claude Code, Codex): for the AI agent panel.

Next: build from source.