Installation

How it works (two layers)

AID separates into two install layers:

1. The aid CLI — a persistent, global command installed once per machine into ~/.aid (Unix) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\aid (Windows). It never changes when you add or remove AID from a project. Bootstrap it once with the one-liners in Step 1 below.

2. Per-project AID files — the profile trees (.claude/, .codex/, CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and so on) that aid add <tool> installs into a repo. Each repo tracks what was installed in its own .aid/.aid-manifest.json.

Choose your install channel

All channels deliver the same aid CLI. The difference is only how aid lands on your PATH. Pick one channel per machine.

| Channel | Requires | When to use | |---------|----------|-------------| | curl / irm (online bootstrap) | Bash or PowerShell 5.1+ | Most users — Linux, macOS, Windows | | npm | Node >=18 | Node-heavy environments; global install via npm | | PyPI (pipx) | Python >=3.8 | Python environments; isolated install via pipx | | Offline bundle | Bash or PowerShell 5.1+ | Air-gapped machines; teams pinning to a specific release |

If aid is installed via more than one channel, PATH order determines which one runs. Pick one and remove the others to avoid confusion.

Step 1 — Bootstrap the aid CLI

Run this once per machine. The bootstrap installs the aid command and wires it onto your PATH. You do not need to be inside a project directory.

curl / irm channel

Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.sh | bash -s -- --version 1.0.0

• Installs to ~/.aid/ (override with $AID_HOME).
• Adds ~/.aid/bin to your PATH via ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.bash_profile.
• Pass --no-path to skip the profile edit and wire PATH yourself.

After bootstrap, open a new shell (or source your profile) to pick up the updated PATH.

macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.sh | bash -s -- --version 1.0.0

• Installs to ~/.aid/ (override with $AID_HOME).
• Adds ~/.aid/bin to your PATH via ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile.
• Pass --no-path to skip the profile edit and wire PATH yourself.

After bootstrap, open a new shell (or source your profile) to pick up the updated PATH.

Windows

$env:AID_VERSION = '1.0.0'
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.ps1 | iex

• Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\aid\ (override with $env:AID_HOME).
• Adds %LOCALAPPDATA%\aid to your User PATH (no admin required).
• Pass -NoPath to skip the PATH edit.

After bootstrap, open a new PowerShell session to pick up the updated PATH.

npm channel

Requires Node >=18.

npm i -g aid-installer@1.0.0

Without a global install — invoke once with npx:

npx aid-installer add claude-code

Updating the aid CLI itself (npm channel):

npm install -g aid-installer@latest

Or via aid:

aid update self
# Prints: npm install -g aid-installer@latest

PyPI channel

Requires Python >=3.8.

pipx install aid-installer==1.0.0

pip — use --user to avoid system-level writes:

pip install --user aid-installer

pipx is preferred because it isolates the install and avoids dependency conflicts.

Updating the aid CLI itself (PyPI channel):

pipx upgrade aid-installer

Or via aid:

aid update self
# Prints: pipx upgrade aid-installer

Offline / air-gapped install

For machines without internet access. Download the tarball and SHA256SUMS from the Releases page, then install with --from-bundle.

1. Download the bundle for your tool.

   curl -LO https://github.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/releases/download/v1.0.0/aid-claude-code-v1.0.0.tar.gz

   Also download the checksum file:

   curl -LO https://github.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/releases/download/$(aid version)/SHA256SUMS

2. Verify the checksum.

   Linux

   sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

   macOS

   shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS

   Windows

   $expected = (Get-Content SHA256SUMS | Where-Object { $_ -match 'aid-claude-code' }) -split '\s+' | Select-Object -First 1
   $actual   = (Get-FileHash .\aid-claude-code-vX.Y.Z.tar.gz -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()
   if ($expected -ne $actual) { Write-Error "Checksum mismatch"; exit 4 }

3. After bootstrapping the CLI (Step 1), add from the bundle.

   aid add claude-code --from-bundle aid-claude-code-vX.Y.Z.tar.gz

   For multiple tools, pass a directory containing the per-tool tarballs (aid-<tool>-v<version>.tar.gz naming):

   aid add codex,cursor --from-bundle ./bundles/

   The live per-release asset list (all five tools) is on the Releases page.

Step 2 — Add AID to your project

After bootstrap, cd into the project repo and use subcommands directly. No re-downloading. No re-piping.

Claude Code

aid add claude-code

What gets installed:

• .claude/skills/ — skill markdown files
• .claude/agents/ — agent markdown files
• CLAUDE.md — project-context file at the project root

Codex

aid add codex

What gets installed:

• .codex/agents/ — agent TOML files
• .agents/ — agent TOML files (alternate path Codex probes)
• AGENTS.md — project-context file at the project root

Cursor

aid add cursor

What gets installed:

• .cursor/rules/ — skill and agent .mdc rule files
• AGENTS.md — project-context file at the project root

Copilot CLI

aid add copilot-cli

What gets installed:

• .github/copilot-agents/ — agent .agent.md files
• AGENTS.md — project-context file at the project root

Antigravity

aid add antigravity

What gets installed:

• .agent/ — skill and agent files with trigger: frontmatter
• AGENTS.md — project-context file at the project root

Check the install:

aid status

Install multiple tools at once:

aid add codex,cursor

Pin to a specific version:

aid add claude-code --version X.Y.Z

Without --version, the installer resolves the latest GitHub Release.

Caution

Root agent files — CLAUDE.md (claude-code) and AGENTS.md (codex, cursor, copilot-cli, antigravity) — may contain your own customizations. aid add protects them from silent overwrites. If the file already exists and differs from the incoming version, aid add writes the new content to <filename>.aid-new and exits with code 5. Review the diff and merge, or re-run with --force to overwrite.

One-line first install

Bootstrap the CLI and add a tool to the current project in a single command:

Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.sh | bash -s -- add claude-code

macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.sh | bash -s -- add claude-code

Windows

$env:AID_TOOL = 'claude-code'
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndreVianna/aid-methodology/master/install.ps1 | iex

Update

Update installed tools

# Update all installed tools to latest
aid update

# Update a specific tool
aid update claude-code

# Update to a pinned version
aid update --version X.Y.Z

Update the aid CLI itself

aid update self

The command is channel-aware: it detects how aid was installed and prints the correct upgrade instruction.

| Install channel | What aid update self does | |----------------|------------------------------| | curl / irm bootstrap | Re-runs the bootstrap script to fetch and install the latest CLI | | npm | Prints: npm install -g aid-installer@latest | | PyPI / pipx | Prints: pipx upgrade aid-installer |

Remove

Remove a specific tool from a project

aid remove claude-code

Remove all AID from a project

aid remove

Prompts for confirmation. Pass --force to skip the prompt. Uninstall is manifest-driven: only files that aid add wrote are removed. Files you created or modified yourself are left in place.

Remove the global aid CLI itself

aid remove self

Prompts for confirmation before removing ~/.aid (or %LOCALAPPDATA%\aid) and the PATH wiring block. Does not touch per-project AID installs — run aid remove inside each project first if you want to clean those up too.

Next steps

Your first work

CLI Reference