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Install Autter once on each machine, in the environment where your coding agents and git run. You do not need per-repository setup. Installing only downloads the autter binary and adds it to your PATH. Agent hooks, global Git settings, and the background service are set up by autter onboard, which asks before it changes anything.

Which install to use

Every method installs the same binary into ~/.autter/bin (%USERPROFILE%\.autter\bin on Windows).
When to use npm instead. Use npm install -g @autter/cli if you’re on Windows and already have Node.js 18 or later, or if the installer keeps failing to download on your network. See Install with npm.
Install and run Autter as your normal user, not with sudo or from an Administrator PowerShell. Elevated installs create files your own account cannot open, and the background service then fails with “Access is denied” or “lock held”.

Install from the Autter platform

If you use the Autter platform, open Settings → Install CLI in the Autter app and click Generate install command. It gives you the command for your operating system with a one-time sign-in token added. The token works once and expires after 15 minutes. When you run that command, the installer:
  1. Downloads the CLI and adds it to your PATH.
  2. Signs the machine in with the token. If the token has expired or was already used, it starts autter login instead, which opens your browser to confirm a short code.
  3. Runs autter onboard for you, so you don’t need to run it again.
Then check the installation with autter doctor. The commands below are the same installers without a token. Choose connected mode during autter onboard to sign in.

System requirements

  • Git 2.22 or later
  • macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later
  • Linux with glibc 2.35 or later (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 36+)
  • Windows 10 or later
  • Node.js 18 or later, for the npm install only
  • At least one supported coding agent for automatic attribution

macOS

Run:
Pipe the script to bash, not sh. In an interactive terminal the installer then starts autter onboard. The installer’s PATH change reaches new terminals. To use autter in the terminal you already have open, run the command the installer prints at the end:
Restart your IDE, not just its terminal tab, so IDE terminals and coding agents see the new PATH. To see what the installer would do without downloading, writing, or starting anything:

Linux

Run the same installer:
Pipe it to bash, not sh: on Debian and Ubuntu, sh is a different shell, and the installer stops and asks you to re-run it with bash. Then load the PATH entry in your current terminal, as on macOS:
Ubuntu 20.04 and other distributions older than glibc 2.35 are not supported natively. Use a newer distribution or run inside an ubuntu:22.04 container.

Windows

Run this from PowerShell, Command Prompt, or Git Bash, in a normal (not administrator) window:
Use the api.autter.dev URL exactly as shown. The installer puts autter.exe in %USERPROFILE%\.autter\bin, adds that folder to your user PATH, and starts autter onboard. The PATH change reaches terminals opened afterwards, not the window you ran the command from. Open a new terminal and restart your IDE before you run autter. The installer prints the full path to autter.exe at the end so you can run it straight away. If you are already in PowerShell, this runs the same installer in your current window, and autter works there immediately:
To see what the installer would do without changing anything, set AUTTER_INSTALL_DRY_RUN first (irm | iex cannot pass arguments), and remove it afterwards:
Git Bash is not WSL. The shell installer exits with instructions in Git Bash. Use the PowerShell command above, which also works from Git Bash.

Install with npm

npm installs the same binary into ~/.autter/bin and checks its checksum against the release. It works on every platform with Node.js 18 or later:
  • Run autter onboard yourself. npm hides install-script output, so the installer can’t start onboarding for you. Until onboarding runs, nothing is captured.
  • Blocked install scripts are fine. With --ignore-scripts or pnpm, the binary downloads the first time you run autter.
  • Upgrade with autter upgrade, or npm install -g @autter/cli@latest. npm update alone does not upgrade the CLI.
npx @autter/cli onboard sets up without a global install.

WSL

Install inside WSL when your coding agents run inside WSL. Open the WSL terminal and run the shell installer there:
Autter records the edits and commits made in the environment it is installed in. An agent started from Windows needs the Windows install; an agent running inside WSL needs this one. If you use both, install in both and run autter doctor in each.

CI

Pin a version so builds are reproducible. With npm:
Or with the shell installer:
CI has no terminal for onboarding prompts. Pass --yes to accept the setup steps up front:
In CI the background service never upgrades the binary by itself. To connect a CI machine to the Autter platform, use a personal access token instead of the browser flow. See Connect to the platform.

Choose a mode during onboarding

autter onboard asks whether you want local-only or connected mode.
Choose local-only mode to keep prompts on the machine and use Git notes for attribution. No account is needed.You can select it again later:
In a terminal, onboarding asks before it installs agent hooks, writes global Git trace2 settings, or starts the background service. Without a terminal it leaves them off unless you pass --yes. Apply them later with autter install --system.

Check the installation

Open a new terminal and run:
autter doctor checks Git, the background service, a real checkpoint round-trip, your agent integrations, and, in connected mode, your sign-in and uploads. Setup is done when it exits 0 and its last lines are a Summary: line with only passed (and skipped) checks, followed by:
  • In local-only mode the sign-in and upload checks show as skipped. That still counts as a pass.
  • If some checks only warn, it ends with No failures. Review the warnings above if capture or sync seems off.
  • A failed check prints a fix: line under it. Run that command, then autter doctor again.
If it still fails, write a support report and send the file with your request:
The report holds doctor’s results, the background service’s state and recent log, and your Git and OS versions, but no source code, file contents, or tokens. See CLI troubleshooting for common failures.

Check an agent integration

Start a fresh coding-agent session after installation. Ask the agent to edit a tracked file, then run:
Commit the change and inspect its attribution:
If you installed a new coding agent after Autter, run autter install-hooks to refresh integrations.

Where Autter is installed

The location is fixed: agent hooks, autter upgrade, and the background service all use it. Do not move the binary. To run autter from somewhere else, add a symlink or add ~/.autter/bin to that environment’s PATH.

Update Autter

Use autter upgrade --force to reinstall the latest release. This works for every install method, including npm: the npm package is only a bootstrapper, and autter upgrade (or the background service’s automatic update) replaces the binary in ~/.autter/bin directly.

Next steps

Connect to the platform

Learn what connection enables and how repository data is routed to your organization.

The background service

See what runs in the background, what it listens to, and how to restart it.