Install the CLI — Era documentation

Era Desktop writes a portable Node/Bun command into the chat work folder’s .era/bin and adds it to the engine’s PATH. There is no separate global installer command.

Prepare Desktop

Install Era Desktop, pair your account and make a supported engine ready in Settings → AI → My subscriptions.

Open an Era chat

Start a chat with a supported local engine. Use that chat’s engine terminal; a normal system terminal may not carry the same PATH or session.

Check help

era --help
era tools

Help establishes that the command exists; the tool list establishes that the session can reach the server. Help alone does not verify the connection.

Technical teams: run from source

From the repository root with Node 22.19+ or Bun:

node packages/era-cli/src/main.ts --help

bun run packages/era-cli/src/main.ts --help

This entry still requires the existing chat’s ERA_CLI_URL and ERA_CLI_TOKEN environment. It does not read a saved device key and is not a general login client for a remote MCP key. Help does not require a session.

Command not found

Open a new ready Era chat and use its session terminal. Copying the generated file to another terminal does not itself provide a session.

Understand sign-in

Two sign-ins, one chat context.

First command

Read permitted data first.