Installation

Kolbo Code ships as a single native binary per platform. Pick whichever install method fits your toolchain — npm is the most common.

npm / bun / pnpm / yarn

The package is published as @kolbo/kolbo-code on npm:

# npm
npm install -g @kolbo/kolbo-code

# bun
bun install -g @kolbo/kolbo-code

# pnpm
pnpm add -g @kolbo/kolbo-code

# yarn
yarn global add @kolbo/kolbo-code

After install, the kolbo binary is available on your PATH:

kolbo --version
kolbo            # launches the TUI in the current directory

"command not found" after install?

On macOS, npm's global bin directory may not be in your shell PATH.

Quick fix — run with npx instead:

npx @kolbo/kolbo-code

Permanent fix — add npm's global bin to your PATH:

# Find where npm puts global binaries
npm config get prefix

# Add it to your shell (zsh is the default on macOS)
echo 'export PATH="$(npm config get prefix)/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# Now it works
kolbo --version

If you use nvm or fnm, the prefix changes per Node version. Run npm config get prefix after switching versions to verify.

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew install kolbo

Windows — PowerShell one-liner

irm https://app.kolbo.ai/install.ps1 | iex

This downloads and installs the kolbo binary to ~\.kolbo\bin and adds it to your PATH automatically. No Node.js or npm required.

Antivirus blocking the installer?

Some antivirus tools (Bitdefender, Windows Defender) may flag the PowerShell installer because it downloads and installs a binary — a pattern that heuristic scanners treat as suspicious even for legitimate software.

Workaround — use npm instead:

npm install -g @kolbo/kolbo-code

npm is universally trusted by antivirus software and installs the exact same binary.

Alternatively, download the script first and run it from disk (file-based execution is scanned less aggressively):

irm https://app.kolbo.ai/install.ps1 -OutFile kolbo-install.ps1
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File kolbo-install.ps1

Windows (Scoop / Chocolatey)

scoop install kolbo
# or
choco install kolbo

Verify the install

kolbo --version
kolbo auth list

If kolbo auth list prints an empty table, continue to Authentication to sign in with your Kolbo.AI account.

System requirements

OS: macOS 12+, Linux (glibc 2.31+), Windows 10+
Terminal: any modern terminal with 256-color and UTF-8 support (iTerm2, Windows Terminal, WezTerm, Alacritty, Kitty, Ghostty, etc.)
For voice input: a working microphone. FFmpeg is bundled with the binary — you do not need to install it separately.

Upgrading

Kolbo Code self-upgrades:

kolbo upgrade

Or reinstall the latest via your package manager.

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