install

Run capa install after you edit capabilities.yaml / .json. capa installs skills, MCP client config, rules, hooks, agents blocks, and plugins for your providers, then wires the local server.

Synopsis

capa install [-e [file]] [-p <provider>] [--no-cache] [--passthrough]

Flags

Flag	Description
-e, --env [file]	Load variables from a .env file instead of the credential web UI. Omitting the path uses .env in the project directory
-p, --provider <id>	Install for a single provider (e.g. cursor, claude-code). Overrides providers in the file
--no-cache	Bypass the on-disk cache and lockfile; re-resolve every remote source
--passthrough	Write provider-native files from the capabilities file (no capa server/proxy management)

Provider resolution

When providers is omitted from the capabilities file, capa picks a provider in this order:

1. --provider flag
2. providers in the capabilities file
3. Stored providers from a previous install
4. Interactive prompt (TTY only)

Caution

In CI or other non-TTY environments, pass -p / --provider explicitly. Without a TTY, capa cannot prompt and the install fails.

Examples

capa install
capa install -e
capa install -e .prod.env
capa install -p cursor
capa install --no-cache
capa install --passthrough -p cursor

With secrets in .env:

echo "BraveApiKey=your-api-key" > .env
capa install -e

See also

• init
• add
• Managed vs passthrough
• Credentials
• cache