Installation

Prerequisites

Bun runtime (v1.0 or later)
pnpm package manager
An Anthropic API key
Git LFS (for downloading the bundled knowledge graph data)

Clone the Repository

git lfs install
git clone https://github.com/mims-harvard/ark-agent-cli
cd ark-agent-cli

The repository uses Git LFS to store Parquet data files. Make sure Git LFS is installed before cloning so the knowledge graph data is downloaded automatically.

Install Dependencies

pnpm install

Configure Your API Key

ARK CLI requires a single environment variable: your Anthropic API key.

Create a .env file in the project root:

.env

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

You can copy the provided template:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env with your actual API key.

Never commit your API key to version control. The .env file is gitignored by default.

Verify Installation

pnpm cli

This starts ARK CLI in development mode with hot reload. You should see the terminal UI with a list of available knowledge graphs.

Build a Standalone Binary

To compile ARK CLI into a self-contained binary that can run without Bun or pnpm:

pnpm build

The binary is output to ./build/ark-agent-cli alongside a copy of your .env file.

./build/ark-agent-cli