Install CAT CLI

OK, CAT seems cool. What do I do to start using it?

CAT CLI runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. Jump to your platform below; each block is complete on its own. In the commands, replace <version> with the current version from the CAT CLI download page.

Windows #

Using WinGet #

The installation is easiest from WinGet:

winget install DataTools.CATCLI

Download Installer #

If you cannot use WinGet, download CAT CLI directly from this site: CAT CLI download page. Grab the version marked as “latest” and install it - it is simple “next, next next”.

Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable #

CAT CLI needs the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable for its Excel and CSV data providers. CAT CLI 3.0 and later installs it for you — the installer bundles it. You only need the manual step below for CAT CLI 2.x.

Go to this Microsoft webpage: Latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version

Download and install “X64” version:

If you get a dialog with “Repair”, “Uninstall” and “Close” buttons, just close it - you already have this prerequisite. Otherwise install it (next, next, next…).

Linux #

Download the archive for your architecture (uname -m prints x86_64 for x64, aarch64 for arm64), check its hash, unpack it and put catcli on PATH. The lines are chained with &&, so a failed hash check stops the sequence before anything is unpacked:

curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz && \
curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \
sha256sum -c cat-cli-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \
sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli && \
sudo mkdir -p /opt/catcli && \
sudo tar -xzf cat-cli-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /opt/catcli && \
sudo ln -sfn /opt/catcli/catcli /usr/local/bin/catcli

Your distribution needs curl and ICU installed — desktop distributions have both; a minimal container image does not, and Installation has the install command for each distribution. Add libgdiplus only if your project writes an Excel output.

macOS #

macOS is a preview — the same build as everywhere else, but not yet tested on a Mac by us. Install it with Homebrew:

brew install justcatit/cat/catcli

Without Homebrew, take the archive for your chip (osx-arm64 for Apple silicon, osx-x64 for Intel):

curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli-<version>-osx-arm64.tar.gz && \
curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli-<version>-osx-arm64.tar.gz.sha256 && \
shasum -a 256 -c cat-cli-<version>-osx-arm64.tar.gz.sha256 && \
sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli && \
sudo mkdir -p /opt/catcli /usr/local/bin && \
sudo tar -xzf cat-cli-<version>-osx-arm64.tar.gz -C /opt/catcli && \
sudo ln -sfn /opt/catcli/catcli /usr/local/bin/catcli

Download with curl, not with the browser: macOS quarantines a browser download and refuses to run it until you clear the flag with sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /opt/catcli. Homebrew installs and curl downloads are never quarantined. Add brew install mono-libgdiplus only if your project writes an Excel output.

Run CAT CLI #

Run catcli --version or catcli -v:

One-time setup #

CAT command-line tools are available in the Team plan (interactive usage only, no schedulers or CI/CD) and in the Enterprise plan (no technical limits). Go to CAT Portal and activate a free trial for Team or Enterprise plan — no credit card needed.

If you activated the Team plan trial:

1. Sign up at CAT Portal.
2. Go to Developer → Personal access tokens and generate a token.
3. Set it and open a new terminal — on Windows setx CAT_PORTAL_TOKEN "paste-your-token-here", on Linux and macOS export CAT_PORTAL_TOKEN="paste-your-token-here" (put that line into your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to keep it across sessions).

If you activated the Enterprise plan trial:

1. Get the license key that arrived in your email.
2. Set it using catcli instance --setLicenseKey "your-key".

The token is used for signing in only — except feature-usage telemetry, no data is sent to CAT Portal. A license key removes the need to sign in, and CAT can then work even without Internet access.

What Next? #

OK, you have CAT CLI. In the next step, create a sample project and explore it.