CLI Quick Start

The Curviate CLI (curviate) gives you a terminal interface to the Curviate API, useful for scripting, exploring the API interactively, and building agent workflows without writing code. This guide covers installation, authentication, and the global flags available on every command.

Install

Node.js 18 or later is required.

# Install the CLI globally
npm install -g @curviate/cli

Verify the installation:

curviate --version

The binary name is curviate. Source code is on GitHub at github.com/curviate/curviate-cli.

Authenticate

Interactive login (recommended)

# Launches a masked TTY prompt; the key is never echoed to stdout
curviate login

The login command saves your API key to the local config file. It performs no network call; the key is stored as-is and verified on the first real command you run.

Non-interactive login

In CI, a container, or any non-TTY context, set the key in the environment. This is the recommended non-interactive path: no config file is written, and the key never appears in ps output or shell history.

export CURVIATE_API_KEY="cvt_live_..."
curviate account list

The environment variable takes precedence over the stored profile, so it also works as a per-command override:

CURVIATE_API_KEY="cvt_live_..." curviate account list

Security note: curviate login --api-key cvt_live_... also works, but a key passed on the command line is visible to other processes via ps and is saved in shell history. Prefer CURVIATE_API_KEY or the interactive curviate login prompt.

Find your API key

Your API key is available in the dashboard topbar settings chip. See Authentication & Accounts for the full setup walkthrough.

Manage profiles

The config subcommands let you manage multiple named profiles, useful when you work with several API keys or accounts.

# List all saved profiles (keys are redacted: prefix + last 4 chars only)
curviate config list
 
# Print the path to the config file
curviate config path
 
# Switch to a named profile
curviate config use <name>
 
# Rename a profile
curviate config rename <old> <new>
 
# Set the default account for the active profile
curviate config set-account <account_id>
 
# Override the API base URL for the active profile (omit <url> to see current)
curviate config set-base-url [<url>] [--reset]
 
# Reset a profile's stored settings
curviate config reset [--profile <name>] [--yes]

First command

Once authenticated, try listing your linked accounts:

curviate account list

Account-scoped commands require --account. Set a default so you don't type it every time:

curviate config set-account acc_YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID
 
# Now account-scoped commands resolve the account automatically
curviate profile me

Global flags

These flags are accepted by every command. Flags with defaults show them in the Default column.

By default, a read returns a sufficient view: the id plus the properties you need to triage the result and chain into the next command, not necessarily every field the API can return. --json forces the full machine-readable output (the default anyway when stdout isn't a TTY); --fields projects that down to exactly the field paths you name. --verbose is narrower still. Only a handful of commands carry deep, high-volume detail behind their default view, for example connect sent/connect received, account get, company managed, inbox search, and groups list/groups get, and --verbose reveals it on those. On the rest of the surface, the default response already is the full shape, so --verbose has no effect.

Command-group articles note which flags each group supports. Write commands support --preview; read commands support --json and --fields; paginated commands additionally support --limit, --cursor, --all, --max-pages, and --page-delay.

Exit codes

Every command sets an exit code derived from the error class, so a script can branch without parsing output. Combine with --json for machine-readable detail.

curviate account list --json
case $? in
  0)  echo "ok" ;;
  3)  echo "check CURVIATE_API_KEY" ;;
  6)  echo "rate limited, backing off"; sleep 30 ;;
  *)  echo "failed" ;;
esac

Next steps

• Accounts: connect a LinkedIn account and read its acc_... id, the prerequisite for everything account-scoped.
• Messaging: read an inbox and send a message.
• Search: find people, companies, and jobs.
• Errors: the full error-code list and what to retry.