Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or later — Tervos uses ES modules throughout. Check your version:

  node --version
  # v20.x.x or higher required

• A package manager — npm, pnpm, or yarn all work.

Global Install

Install the CLI globally so tervos is available in any project:

npm install -g @tervos/cli

Verify the install:

tervos --version

No-Install (npx)

Run without installing globally. This always pulls the latest published version:

npx @tervos/cli@latest --version

For one-off use, substitute npx @tervos/cli@latest anywhere you see tervos:

npx @tervos/cli@latest init --template demo

Per-Project Install (optional)

If you want a pinned version in a specific project:

npm install --save-dev @tervos/cli

Then run via the local binary:

npx tervos --version

Or add a script to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "org:start": "tervos start --dev",
    "org:audit": "tervos audit"
  }
}

Protocol Packages

The CLI is the entry point. Under the hood it uses the Tervos protocol packages, which you can install separately if you’re building on top of the protocol programmatically:

Package	Purpose
@tervos/core	Manifest schema, event bus, event store
@tervos/identity	Ed25519 DID generation, JWT tokens
@tervos/policy	Policy engine (permit/forbid/implicit-deny)
@tervos/org	Agent runtime, task lifecycle, approval queue
@tervos/adapter-paperclip	Import from Paperclip AI
@tervos/adapter-agency-agents	Import from agency-agents

All packages are published on npm under the @tervos scope at version 0.1.x.

Next Steps

Ready to build your first governed AI organization?

• Quickstart — Run the demo org in 5 minutes using a pre-built template
• Your First Organization — Build a custom org from scratch, step by step