Quickstart

Use this guide to install Arcen Agent on your system, configure a model provider, and start an interactive terminal session.

1. Installation

On Linux, macOS, WSL2, or Termux, run the one-click installer:

curl -fsSL https://arcen-cli.arcenpay.com/install.sh | bash

On native Windows PowerShell (Administrator mode recommended):

iex (irm https://arcen-cli.arcenpay.com/install.ps1)

The installer sets up a local virtual environment and checks for system requirements:

Installs Python 3.10+ (if missing)
Installs uv for lightning-fast package management and resolution
Configures system tools (ripgrep for grep search, Node.js for TUI rendering)
Adds arcen binary to your shell’s user path.

Reload your terminal settings or start a new terminal shell to pick up the updated path:

# For bash users:
source ~/.bashrc

# For zsh users:
source ~/.zshrc

# For fish users:
source ~/.config/fish/config.fish

To confirm the command is active, verify the version:

arcen --version

To interact with an LLM, you must configure a model provider. Start by running the interactive setup wizard:

arcen setup

The wizard will guide you through setting up:

Default LLM Provider (e.g. OpenAI, OpenRouter, Anthropic, Ollama)
Base URL and Model Selection
Storage and Memory provider backends (e.g. Honcho)
Access keys (keys are securely appended to ~/.arcen/.env to keep secrets clean)

You can switch the active session model at any time from your command line:

arcen model openai:gpt-4o
arcen model openrouter:anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet

Enable or disable terminal tool groups to specify what the agent can run:

arcen tools

To make sure your environment is fully ready and has correct tool dependencies, run the doctor subcommand:

arcen doctor

This runs a suite of checks:

Verifies package versions in .venv
Verifies API keys in ~/.arcen/.env
Probes container runtimes (e.g., Docker, Singularity) for sandbox backend execution
Checks accessibility of required tools (e.g., git, npm, tar).

Here are the most common commands you will use to operate Arcen:

Command	Action
`arcen`	Launches the interactive prompt-toolkit CLI session.
`arcen --tui`	Launches the modern Ink-based Terminal UI.
`arcen logs --follow`	Follows the agent activity feeds in real-time.
`arcen doctor`	Diagnoses local setup and environment issues.
`arcen gateway start`	Starts the background messaging gateway listener.
`arcen update`	Fetches and installs the latest version of Arcen Agent.