Installation¶

Requirements¶

Dependency	Purpose	Required?
`nmap`	LAN host discovery (root mode) and port scanning	Yes
`nmcli`	WiFi scanning via NetworkManager (Linux)	For WiFi only
`ping` (setuid)	Non-root host discovery via ICMP sweep	Yes (non-root)
Go 1.24+	Build from source only	Source builds only

macOS

nmcli is a Linux-only tool (NetworkManager). WiFi scanning is not yet supported on macOS. LAN host discovery and port scanning work normally on both Linux and macOS.

Install nmap¶

Debian / Ubuntu

bash sudo apt install nmap

Arch / Manjaro

bash sudo pacman -S nmap

Fedora / RHEL

bash sudo dnf install nmap

macOS (Homebrew)

bash brew install nmap

Option A — Pre-built binary (recommended)¶

Download the binary for your platform from the Releases page:

File	Platform
`nova_linux_amd64.tar.gz`	Linux 64-bit (Intel/AMD)
`nova_linux_arm64.tar.gz`	Linux ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, etc.)
`nova_darwin_amd64.tar.gz`	macOS Intel
`nova_darwin_arm64.tar.gz`	macOS Apple Silicon

# Example: Linux amd64
tar -xzf nova_linux_amd64.tar.gz
chmod +x nova
sudo mv nova /usr/local/bin/

# Verify
nova --version

Option B — `go install`¶

Requires Go 1.24+ on your PATH:

go install github.com/Zayan-Mohamed/nova@latest

The binary is placed in $(go env GOPATH)/bin. Make sure that directory is on your PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Option C — Build from source¶

git clone https://github.com/Zayan-Mohamed/nova.git
cd nova
go build -o nova .
./nova --help

For a fully static binary matching the release builds:

CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o nova .

Verify installation¶

nova --version
nova --help

Running without root¶

NOVA works without root privileges. In non-root mode:

Host discovery uses the system ping binary (which is setuid-root on most distros, so it can send ICMP without your process being root) combined with reading the kernel ARP cache at /proc/net/arp.
Port scanning uses nmap TCP connect scan (-sT) instead of SYN scan.

To use the faster root mode:

sudo nova

Warning

NOVA will never attempt to escalate privileges automatically. If a root-only operation is needed and you are not root, NOVA will display a message and let you decide.