Install and Update the CLI

The CLI is one JavaScript file with no runtime dependencies. It needs Node 22 or newer, and it runs on macOS, Windows and Linux — all three run the full test suite on every change, because the failures a local binary has are mostly platform-shaped.

Install it globally#

npm install -g @stringlane/cli

Then:

stringlane --version

This is the right choice for a machine you work on: the command is on your PATH, so your shell, your agent and any script can reach it by name.

Or run it without installing#

npx @stringlane/cli check .

Useful for trying it once, and for a CI job you would rather not add an install step to. It costs a resolution on every invocation, so it is the wrong default for interactive use.

Pin it in CI#

The CLI is at 0.x. That is not modesty, it is notation: the command surface is not promised yet, so a minor version is allowed to change it. In a pipeline, name the version you tested against.

- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with: { node-version: 22 }
- run: npm install -g @stringlane/cli@0.3.2
- run: stringlane check .

Upgrade that number deliberately, when you have read what changed.

Keep it current#

npm install -g @stringlane/cli@latest

The CLI is versioned on its own clock, separately from the desktop app: they ship when each has something to ship, and the numbers are not meant to line up. Updating one never requires updating the other.

Remove it#

npm uninstall -g @stringlane/cli

That is the whole removal, with two things worth knowing about what it leaves behind.

Your repository is untouched. stringlane.yaml, .stringlane/baseline.yaml and .stringlane/metadata.yaml are your files, committed and readable without StringLane. Delete them if you want them gone.

A small state directory remains. The apply lock and a record of what each project looked like last time live outside your repository, in the usual per-user location for your platform:

All of it is regenerable, so deleting it costs nothing. Set STRINGLANE_STATE_HOME to an absolute path to put it somewhere else, which is worth knowing on a CI runner or in a container with no writable home directory.

If you also use the agent plugin#

On macOS and Linux the plugin can find the CLI for you. On Windows it cannot: the bundled resolver is a POSIX shell script and Windows will not run it. Install the CLI globally yourself once, as above, and the MCP server and hooks then behave identically. See Agent hosts.