---
title: "Install and run Neutrino"
description: "Install fermion, open a local chat, and verify the downloaded model in about a minute."
canonical: "https://www.fermionresearch.com/docs/quickstart/"
source: "Fermion Research"
---

Docs / Getting started

# Install and run Neutrino

Install fermion, open a local chat, and verify the downloaded model in about a minute.

## Requirements

Fermion supports Python 3.10 through 3.13 on macOS, Linux, and Windows. The package is Apache-2.0 licensed and installs the `fermion` command. On Linux x86-64 the CPU speech engine needs glibc 2.34 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, RHEL 9 and later) and about 7 GB of free RAM.

```text
pip install torch --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
pip install fermion-research
```

## Install and chat

```text
pip install fermion-research
fermion chat
```

The first command installs the package. The second downloads Neutrino-8B when needed, verifies it, selects the best available backend, and opens the interactive prompt.

- `/exit` leaves the chat.
- `/reset` clears the conversation history.
- The default model is `FermionResearch/Neutrino-8B`.

## Generate one response

```text
fermion generate "Explain why the sky is blue." --max-new 64
```

`generate` is deterministic by default and prints the completion to standard output. Runtime and throughput statistics go to standard error, which keeps scripts clean.

## Verify the installation

```text
fermion --version
fermion info
```

`fermion info` checks the container structure, expected length, and SHA-256. It exits with status 1 if the container is truncated or altered.

## What happens on first run

1. Fetch metadata Configuration, tokenizer files, the model manifest, license, and the runner for the current platform arrive first.
2. Download weights Apple Silicon downloads a 2.56 GB coded transport and expands it locally. Other platforms download the 3.88 GB container.
3. Verify The expanded container is checked against the released SHA-256 before it is loaded.
4. Select a backend The CLI reports whether it selected the optimized native path or the PyTorch reference path.

## Speech

```text
fermion transcribe recording.wav
fermion listen
```

The same package runs `Phonon-1`, an open speech recognition model for English. `transcribe` prints the transcript of an audio file to standard output. `listen` transcribes the microphone live and prints the full transcript when you stop with Ctrl-C. Phonon-1 downloads on first use in 415 MB and runs on a Mac (via MLX), an NVIDIA GPU, or a CPU.

[Transcribe and dictate](https://www.fermionresearch.com/docs/speech/) covers both commands, the audio API, and the model options.

Source: [https://www.fermionresearch.com/docs/quickstart/](https://www.fermionresearch.com/docs/quickstart/)