Windows install instructions

[tridashafox]

The windows install instructions in the readme.md are not correct as it stands.

pip3 install -r requirements.txt fails

Issues

1. You need to have a CL compiler installed and on the path and associated tools, e.g. CMake.
2. You need to have a fortran compiler on your path for the install to work (ifort or ifx)
3. you need pkg-config installed on your path

---

If you don't you will see these errors:

1. As below [2] but for CL (I don't have the exact error to cut and paste)
2. .\meson.build:80:0: ERROR: Unknown compiler(s): [['ifort'], ['ifx'], ['gfortran'], ['flang-new'], ['flang'], ['pgfortran'], ['g95']]
3. ..\scipy\meson.build:169:9: ERROR: Dependency lookup for OpenBLAS with method 'pkgconfig' failed: Pkg-config for machine host machine not found. Giving up.

---

1. I have one installed, and just had to set the paths (setvars) and got past this to the next issue
2. I got from Intel, installed and also set the env for, this then worked
3. I gave up, as there is no simple install for this, likely would need to start again and install MSYS2

All this so the Meson build system will complete building scipy-1.12.0 from the requirements.txt

[tridashafox]

I got it to install. At time of writing, the answer for windows install is:
install python 3.11.6, make sure don't check include on path if you already have a different version of python installed. (3.13 does not work, 3.10 does not work, don't know about others)
Later, use py to run this specific version of python and create the venv which will contain this version.
Also with the venv is active, install the precompiled tools (pip setuptools wheel ) to avoid meson.build having to try to compile fortan and use cmake.

So the actual install instructions should read something like:

install python 3.11.6, make sure don't check' include on path' if you already have a different version installed.
git clone https://github.com/ostris/ai-toolkit.git
cd ai-toolkit
py -3.11 -m venv venv
.\venv\Scripts\activate
pip install --no-cache-dir torch==2.7.0 torchvision==0.22.0 torchaudio==2.7.0 --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu126
python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install -r requirements.txt

Then each time you want to start the app, run a cmd shell and in the ai-toolkit directory use:

_node must be installed (https://nodejs.org/) and on path.
.\venv\Scripts\activate
cd ui
npm run build_and_start

[tridashafox]

Also these instructions are incorrect:
set AI_TOOLKIT_AUTH=super_secure_password && npm run build_and_start

They will result in a space at the end of the password making it impossible to sign in unless you know that is what happened.

Best to do it on two lines:
set AI_TOOLKIT_AUTH=super_secure_password
npm run build_and_start

[StudyWell-feng]

good，thanks

[orionfl79]

For what its worth I just went through all sorts of mind boggling heck trying to get this to go using the instructions from the readme. I'm basically pre-loaded with Python 3.13 from my Comfy setup and went down the rabbit hole trying to find a download of Python 3.11 - which is apparently a security only release and no binaries are available.

Then on a whim I tried the install script they mentioned from here: https://github.com/Tavris1/AI-Toolkit-Easy-Install/blob/main/AI-Toolkit-Easy-Install.bat - which worked and it seems to be running.

From what I can tell, the magic sauce seems to be that its installing a portable version of Python 3.12.