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Installing Groovy
Groovy runs on the JVM, so you need a Java Development Kit (JDK) first. Groovy 6 requires Java 17 or newer; Java 21 or 25 (both long-term-support releases) are good choices. Check with:
$ java -version
openjdk version "21.0.12" 2026-07-21 LTS
SDKMAN! (macOS, Linux, WSL)
SDKMAN! installs and switches between versions of Java, Groovy, Gradle, and other JVM tools:
curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
sdk install java 21.0.12-tem
sdk install groovy
Windows
scoop install groovy
choco install groovy
Or download the binary distribution zip from groovy.apache.org,
unzip it (for example to C:\groovy), set GROOVY_HOME to that folder,
and add %GROOVY_HOME%\bin to your PATH. Make sure JAVA_HOME points
to your JDK.
macOS with Homebrew
brew install groovy
Check it works
$ groovy --version
Groovy Version: 6.0.0 JVM: 21.0.12 Vendor: Eclipse Adoptium OS: Windows 11
Linux distribution packages are often several versions behind — prefer SDKMAN! there.
Try it without installing
The Groovy Web Console (groovyconsole.dev) runs Groovy scripts in your browser, handy for trying the examples in this course.