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Installation

Get started with squads-cli in under 2 minutes.

Requirements

Node.js 18+ (required)
Git (for activity tracking)
Claude Code (optional, for running agents)
GitHub CLI (gh) (optional, for PR/issue metrics)
1

Install globally

terminal
$ npm install -g squads-cli

This installs squads-cli globally, making the squads command available everywhere on your system.

Output:
added 42 packages in 3s
✓ squads-cli installed successfully
2

Initialize in your project

terminal
$ squads init

Creates the .agents/ directory with an example squad.

Output:
✓ Created .agents/squads/ directory
✓ Created example squad: engineering
✓ Created .agents/memory/ directory
✓ Created .agents/sessions/ directory
Next steps:
$ squads status See your new squad
$ squads dash Full dashboard view
What was created:
.agents/
squads/
engineering/
SQUAD.md # Squad config + goals
backend-engineer.md # Example agent
frontend-engineer.md
devops-engineer.md
memory/
engineering/
.gitkeep
sessions/
active/
history.jsonl
3

Check status

terminal
$ squads status
Output:
● 0 active sessions
1/1 squads │ memory: enabled
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SQUAD AGENTS MEMORY ACTIVITY │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ engineering 3 none — │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
4

Set your first goal

terminal
$ squads goal set engineering "Ship authentication feature by Friday"
Output:
● Goal added to engineering
Ship authentication feature by Friday

Goals help you track what each squad is working towards. View all goals with squads goal list.