Abacus AI CLI Installation
The Abacus AI CLI brings the full power of the AI coding agent directly into your favorite terminal.
Installation​
- macOS / Linux / WSL
- Windows PowerShell
- Windows CMD
- npm
curl -fsSL https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.sh | bash
Works on macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.), and WSL.
irm https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.ps1 | iex
curl -fsSL https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd
npm install -g @abacus-ai/cli
Requires Node.js v18 or higher.
After installation, restart your terminal to ensure the abacusai command is available on your PATH.
Getting Started​
Launch the Abacus AI CLI:
abacusai
Log in on first use:
/login [email]
Setting Your API Key​
You can also authenticate by setting your API key as an environment variable:
- macOS / Linux
- Windows PowerShell
- Windows CMD
export ABACUS_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
$env:ABACUS_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
set ABACUS_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
With ABACUS_API_KEY set, you are signed in without running /login. Other environment variables are listed under Settings.
Verifying the Installation​
abacusai --help
Coming from Claude Code​
If you already use Claude Code on this machine, run /import in a session and the CLI brings your setup across:
| What | Becomes |
|---|---|
CLAUDE.md | AGENTS.md |
| MCP servers | Your MCP configuration |
| Permission rules | Your allow, ask and deny lists |
| Skills and commands | Your skills |
| Memory | Your memory |
Run /import --dry-run first to see what it would do without writing anything.
Two machine-level fixes are worth running once on a new install: /setup configures your terminal and editor, and /doctor diagnoses an install that is misbehaving. Both are covered under built-in skills.
Shell commands on Windows​
The CLI runs shell commands through a bundled POSIX shell, so the agent can write ordinary sh scripts on Windows without WSL or a container. Native Windows programs still run normally, and your PATH is never reordered.
If you have Git for Windows installed, the CLI also picks up its GNU tools, so real Bash scripts and sed, grep -P, awk, date, diff and patch behave as they do on macOS and Linux. Installing it is the single best thing you can do for the agent's success rate on Windows.
To use a Windows shell instead, set CODELLM_SHELL to powershell, pwsh or cmd.
Terminal tab title in VS Code​
The CLI sets the terminal title to the current chat. Most terminals show it as is. VS Code and editors built on it (Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity) show only the process name unless the tab title setting includes ${sequence}. Add this to your VS Code settings:
"terminal.integrated.tabs.title": "${sequence}"
For more on features and usage, see the Abacus AI Desktop introduction. To configure the CLI, see Settings.