Quickstart

Get PiPiece running on a Raspberry Pi in minutes.

Prerequisites

• Raspberry Pi 4 or 5
• HQ Camera module (or compatible)
• microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)
• Network connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)

Need to flash a microSD card? See the Raspberry Pi Imager Setup Guide.

Install

SSH into your Pi (or open a terminal) and run this single command:

TAG=$(curl -s "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/79538131/releases" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)[0]['tag_name'])") && curl -L "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/79538131/packages/generic/pipiece/${TAG}/pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz" -o pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz && tar -xzf pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz -C ~ && cd ~/pipiece-ui && bash setup/install.sh --yes

What that command does

Step	Command	Purpose
1	curl -s "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/79538131/releases"	Fetches the list of releases from the public GitLab API
2	python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)[0]['tag_name'])"	Extracts the latest release tag (e.g. 1.0.0-2)
3	curl -L "https://...pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz" -o pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz	Downloads the release tarball to the current directory
4	tar -xzf pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz -C ~	Extracts the tarball into ~/pipiece-ui/
5	cd ~/pipiece-ui && bash setup/install.sh --yes	Runs the installer in non-interactive mode

The installer auto-detects your display (HyperPixel4, TouchDisplay, PiTFT), installs Node.js and tools, starts the server, configures the kiosk UI, and reboots. The --yes flag skips all prompts and declines optional packages.

To run interactively instead (prompts for optional packages, asks before rebooting):

TAG=$(curl -s "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/79538131/releases" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)[0]['tag_name'])") && curl -L "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/79538131/packages/generic/pipiece/${TAG}/pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz" -o pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz && tar -xzf pipiece-${TAG}.tar.gz -C ~ && cd ~/pipiece-ui && bash setup/install.sh

Access the UI

Open a browser and go to:

http://pipiece.local

Or use the touchscreen directly — the kiosk launches automatically after reboot.

What's Next

• Camera preview: Navigate to the Camera view to see a live feed
• Bird Watcher: Enable AI-powered bird detection from the Camera view
• System settings: Use the System view to configure, update, and manage your Pi
• Full setup guide: See Pi Setup Guide for manual steps and troubleshooting