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

curl -fsSL https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.sh | bash

Works on macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.), and WSL.

Windows PowerShell

irm https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.ps1 | iex

Windows CMD

curl -fsSL https://static.abacus.ai/cli/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

npm

npm install -g @abacus-ai/cli

Requires Node.js v18 or higher.

tip

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

export ABACUS_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

Windows PowerShell

$env:ABACUS_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"

Windows CMD

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

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.