Install the CLI

The knowlery CLI (which also carries the MCP server) installs differently per platform — this page has one section per OS. Either way, verify with:

knowlery --version

Don't need the command on your PATH?

Every use of knowlery <cmd> also works as npx -y knowlery@^1 <cmd> with zero installation — and MCP client configs can use the npx form directly. Installing is for people who want the bare command in their terminal.

macOS (and Linux)

Requirement: Node.js ≥ 18 (node -v to check; install via nodejs.org, Homebrew, or nvm).

Recommended — the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://jayjiangct.github.io/knowlery/install.sh | sh

What it does (and deliberately doesn't):

• installs into an isolated prefix (~/.knowlery/cli) — no sudo, no global npm involvement;
• links the command into ~/.local/bin;
• if that directory isn't on your PATH, it shows the exact line and asks before touching your shell config — decline and it prints the manual instruction instead. Nothing is ever modified silently.
• re-running the same line upgrades in place.

Open a new terminal afterwards and run knowlery --version.

Alternative — npm global:

npm install -g knowlery

Works when your npm global-prefix bin is on PATH (nvm users: always true). If you get command not found afterwards, that's the exact problem the one-line installer exists to solve — use it instead.

Uninstall (installer method): rm -rf ~/.knowlery/cli ~/.local/bin/knowlery, plus the one marked line in your shell config if you approved it.

Windows

Requirement: Node.js ≥ 18 — install with either:

winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

or the installer from nodejs.org. Both wire npm's global directory (%AppData%\npm) onto your PATH automatically — which is why the plain npm route is the smooth path on Windows:

npm install -g knowlery
knowlery --version

Open a new terminal after installing Node before running npm.

If knowlery isn't recognized after install: check that %AppData%\npm is on your PATH (Settings → System → About → Advanced system settings → Environment Variables), add it if missing, then open a new terminal.

WSL users: inside WSL you're on Linux — use the macOS/Linux one-line installer above.

MCP configs on Windows use the same JSON as everywhere; if you point at absolute paths, remember they look like C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\knowlery.cmd (escaped backslashes in JSON), or sidestep paths entirely with the npx form.

A native PowerShell one-line installer is a recorded candidate, not yet shipped — on Windows the npm route needs no PATH surgery, so the gap is smaller than on macOS.

After installing, on any OS

knowlery init --dir ~/kb/main --platform claude-code --name "My KB"
knowlery kb add main ~/kb/main
knowlery index --kb main

Then connect your agent — or if you came from Obsidian, your existing vault is already compatible: knowlery kb add <name> <vault-path> and every command works against it.