There are several ways of installing Conkeror on Mac OS X but I prefer using the conkeror_mac_bundle script for quickly building the Conkeror application and easily setting it as default browser on Mac OS. For instruction on how to install Conkeror using this method, refer to this page Installation Instructions for OS X.

The only problem with conkeror_mac_bundler script is that you are not able to run shell command directly in Conkeror. The reason is because it cannot find conkeror-spawn-helper in the load path. However, conkeror-spawn-helper is already included when the script build the Conkeror bundle. You can find it under the folder Contents/MacOS inside the Conkeror.app bundle.

Once you find it, add this code to your .conkerorrc file and change the path corresponding to the real location on your computer

PATH.push("~/Applications/conkeror_mac_bundler/Conkeror.app/Contents/MacOS");

That’s everything you need to do. Restart Conkeror and try it by pressing M-x and then shell-command. You can also use TAB completion there.