We have commissioned a new instrument for high resolution inelastic x-ray scattering on the inelastic scattering beamline of the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation Collaborative Access Team on sector 3 of the Advanced Photon Source. So far, the instrument is set up at 13.84 keV with a total energy resolution of 7.5 meV and a momentum resolution of⩽0.1 Å−1.We present technical details of the instrument, which includes an in-line monochromator, a focusing mirror, and a focusing analyzer. The performance of the instrument was demonstrated in studies of phonons in diamond and chromium. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.