Installation
Wikven runs in two ways. On Linux the standalone binary is the simplest, a single file with no Docker. On macOS or Windows, use the Docker image. To run a change of your own, or a commit that no release carries yet, build it from source instead.
Binary
A single self-contained executable that embeds MediaWiki, for Linux on x86_64 and arm64. Download it and make it executable:
curl -L -o wikven https://github.com/chaotic-ground/wikven/releases/latest/download/wikven-linux-x86_64
chmod +x wikven
On arm64, use wikven-linux-aarch64. See Standalone binary for installing it onto your PATH, nightly builds, and the optional host tools it uses.
Docker
Works on any platform with Docker, so it is the option to use on macOS and Windows. The image is published to the GitHub Container Registry:
docker pull ghcr.io/chaotic-ground/wikven
The same image is published to Quay as well, at quay.io/chaotic-ground/wikven. One build pushes both addresses, so pull from whichever one answers.
The untagged image is the newest released version. To hold a build still, pin the version tag :1.3.0 or the digest (ghcr.io/chaotic-ground/wikven@sha256:...); shorter tags for the major and the minor version are published too, and move as that line gains releases. A dated nightly-YYYY-MM-DD tag is the main branch as it stood that day, for trying a change before it is released.
Which MediaWiki
You do not install MediaWiki: every way of running Wikven brings its own. The image and the binary are built on MediaWiki 1.46.0, and that is what renders your pages however you run them.
Versions
A new major version of Wikven comes with every MediaWiki release it moves to, and only then. It follows each MediaWiki release rather than only the long-term-support ones, which comes to about two majors a year. A new MediaWiki can change the HTML your MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Common.js select against, so read a major's release notes before moving to it, and build your site and look at it afterwards.
A change of Wikven's own that would break a site does not get a major of its own. It waits for the next MediaWiki release, and until then the old behaviour keeps working and the documentation says what is coming, so a minor or patch release does not break a site that built before it. The one exception is a change that fixes something harmful, which does not wait.
Once you have Wikven, head to Getting Started to build your first site.