Install DCENT_Toolbox & Run Your First Command

Install DCENT_Toolbox by cloning the public GPL-3.0 repository and running an editable pip install from that checkout — there is no PyPI package and no signed binary yet, so a source checkout is the honest install path today. You need Python 3.9 or newer and git; the toolbox runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Then run one command first: dcent doctor <ip> — it is read-only, never destructive, and tells you exactly what to do next. For the interactive surface, open dcent tui, the keygen-style dashboard.

What do you need before you install?

Requirement	Why
Python 3.9+	dcent is a Python console script. Python 3.9 through 3.13 are declared supported.
git	The install path is a source checkout of the public repository — there is no package-index release to pull from yet.
A complete checkout	The tree must contain pyproject.toml and src/dcent_toolbox/. A partial copy will not install.
A miner you own or administer	Unlock, flash, credential-recovery and audit features are for hardware you own or are explicitly authorized to administer.
Nothing else	No cloud account, no licence server, no dev fee, no telemetry to register.

paramiko ships as a core dependency, so SSH works out of the box on Windows with no extra setup, including miners that need legacy SSH crypto. The scan / detect / audit / diagnose surface runs on a clean host with no sshpass to install.

How do you install DCENT_Toolbox?

Three commands. Clone the repository, enter it, and install it editable so the code you run is the code in the checkout.

git clone https://github.com/DCentralTech/DCENT_Toolbox.git
cd DCENT_Toolbox
python -m pip install -e .

The repository is public and GPL-3.0: github.com/DCentralTech/DCENT_Toolbox. The editable (-e) install points the dcent console script straight at the checked-out source, so a git pull updates the tool in place with no reinstall step.

Confirm it landed:

dcent --version
dcent --help

You should see 2.5.0 — the current release (Development Status: 4 - Beta), GPL-3.0-only, authored by D-Central Technologies. That release is built from 491 Python modules and 87 CLI command modules exposing roughly 75 user-facing top-level commands, with 4,500+ offline tests passing.

Optional extras

The core install deliberately excludes the heavy TUI stack so the CLI mission — scan, unlock, flash, diagnose — stays lean. Add extras as you need them, from the same checkout:

python -m pip install -e ".[tui]"             # Textual keygen dashboard (dcent tui)
python -m pip install -e ".[audio]"           # chiptune playback in the TUI
python -m pip install -e ".[axe]"             # esptool + pyserial for BitAxe USB flash
python -m pip install -e ".[tui,audio,axe]"   # the full TUI experience

Why is there no installer or package-index release?

Because neither exists yet, and we would rather say so than ship you a dead link.

• No package-index release. The PyPI badge in the repository reads pending. Until the package is published, a complete source checkout is the install path.
• No published binary. There is no download URL for a standalone dcent executable; a signed per-OS binary is a target, not a shipped artifact.
• No desktop GUI. The keygen-style terminal UI is the flagship interactive surface. A Tauri desktop shell exists in the tree as a scaffold, but it does not install — do not go looking for an app icon.

The editable checkout is not a downgrade. It is the same tree the offline tests run against, and you can read exactly what the code does before you run it against your hardware. That is the point of a fee-free, no-cloud, no-licence-server tool: you keep the keys, the logs, and the source.

What is the first command to run?

dcent doctor <ip>. Whatever you are trying to do — triage a dead unit, plan a firmware change, or just look around — this is the canonical first step for every persona. It is read-only and never destructive.

dcent doctor 192.168.1.50

It reports the vendor, firmware, control board, reachability, and a recommended next command. On an ESP/Bitaxe-class board it points you at the OTA or USB route instead of an SSH one. Because it only reads, you can run it against any unit on your LAN without staging a single write.

The next three commands worth knowing (also read-only)

# Discover miners on a subnet
dcent scan --range 192.168.1.0/24

# Identify firmware on one host
dcent detect 192.168.1.50

# Full status: hashrate, temps, fans, pools, boards
dcent info 192.168.1.50

How do you open the TUI?

The keygen-style TUI is DCENT_Toolbox's flagship interactive surface — a Textual dashboard built in the demoscene cracktro aesthetic. Install the [tui] extra, then launch it:

python -m pip install -e ".[tui]"
dcent tui

Discovery in the TUI is opt-in: it opens with an empty fleet and scans only when you press R. If dcent tui reports that Textual is missing even after you installed the extra, you have PATH shadowing — a bare dcent resolves through PATH and can land on an unrelated virtualenv. The tui subcommand handles that ImportError gracefully and names the extra to install.

Platform notes: Windows, macOS, Linux

Platform	What to know
Windows	Works out of the box — paramiko ships as a core dependency, so SSH works with no extra setup, including miners that need legacy SSH crypto, and there is no sshpass to install. When PATH or venv shadowing bites, use the Windows Python launcher, py -3 -m dcent_toolbox, which selects a registered base Python 3 regardless of what is on PATH. The repository ships launch-tui.bat, which resolves an interpreter in that order for you.
macOS	Supported. Standard Python 3.9+ and the same three-command source checkout above.
Linux	Supported. Same checkout, same commands — ideal for a headless bench or a fleet host.
USB flashing (any OS)	BitAxe / ESP USB-serial flashing needs the [axe] extra (esptool + pyserial).

What "installed" does — and does not — mean

Installing the toolbox gives you a local tool, not a compatibility guarantee. dcent install is dry-run/plan by default; the live write step executes only on an explicit operator confirmation (--yes). Nothing in this install guide writes to a miner.

The toolbox reports what it proved, never more. An upload is accepted, not flashed; a reachable device is online, not mining. Detected is not safe to configure, adapter present is not operation validated on that miner, and package parsed is not safe to install. Before any write, the toolbox forces the operation to resolve to an exact model, control board, incumbent firmware, evidence level, and recovery route — and it labels what it found as Production, Beta, Experimental, Recovery-only, or Detected-but-unsupported.

That honesty matters most for firmware installs. "Install DCENT_OS on any Antminer, software-only" is not true, and the toolbox says so per board. Only the Antminer S9 (am1-XIL) has a public network-write / SD-trial route today. Every current-generation Antminer (S17 / S19 / S19j Pro / S19k Pro / S21) stock first-install is lab-gated, evidence-gap, or no-customer-write. BitAxe / ESP devices have real OTA/USB routes:

Target	DCENT_OS first-install reality
Antminer S9 (Zynq / XIL, am1)	The only public network-write route — and still a public-BETA / SD-trial path, requiring the public artifact plus a witnessed live capstone.
S17 / T17, plain S19	No customer write route. Named deliberately, with no write path.
S19 Pro / S19j Pro (am2)	Guarded lab self-update only, from an already-running DCENT_OS source. Vendor-source persistent first install remains a non-executable evidence gap.
S19j / S19j Pro (BeagleBone), S19j Pro / S19k Pro / S21 (Amlogic) class, CV1835	Hardware/manual route required, experimental lab route, or hardware-limited. Not one-click, not an end-user path.
Bitaxe / ESP (Max, Ultra, Supra, Gamma, Hex Ultra, Hex Supra)	Real routes: HTTP OTA or USB serial, with no SSH or NAND step.

What does it cover once installed?

Layer	Coverage
Vendor backends	4 real backends: Bitmain (stock / BraiinsOS+ / LuxOS / VNish / DCENT_OS), MicroBT WhatsMiner, Canaan/Avalon (cgminer + ascset), and BitAxe (AxeOS). Unknown gear routes to a read-only generic cgminer backend — never a silent Bitmain mis-route.
Firmware ecosystems	6 detected and driven: Bitmain stock, BraiinsOS+, LuxOS, VNish, DCENT_OS for Antminers, and DCENT_OS/ESP for DCENT_axe.
Control-board families	7: am1-XIL, am2-XIL, am3-BB, am3-AML, cv1835, bcb100, esp32-s3.
Licence & economics	GPL-3.0-only. 0% dev fee, no cloud, no licence server, no telemetry.

Built by the mining hackers at D-Central Technologies — Bitcoin mining technology since 2016, Québec. This is the bench we use ourselves, released so every operator can own, repair, and understand their own hardware.

Where next

• Command reference — the ~75 top-level commands and what each one proves.
• Discover miners on your LAN — dcent scan, detect, and info in depth.
• Compatibility matrix — vendors, firmwares, and the 7 control-board families.
• Installing DCENT_OS with the toolbox — the honest per-board route reality.
• DCENT_Toolbox FAQ — the questions operators ask first.
• DCENT_OS and DCENT_OS first run — the companion open-source mining firmware.
• Antminer S9 SD trial — the one public network-write install route, start to finish.
• Web flasher — browser-based flashing for supported ESP boards.
• Fund the sovereign stack — 0% dev fee means the work is funded directly, not by a cut of your hashrate.