---
layout: default
navsection: sdk
navmenu: CLI
title: "Command line SDK"

...

The @arv@ CLI tool provides a generic set of wrappers so you can make API calls easily. It performs some validation before connecting to the API server: for example, it refuses to do an API call if a required parameter is missing.

It also provides access to Keep storage services with the @arv keep@ subcommand.

h3. Usage

See the "command line interface":{{site.baseurl}}/user/reference/sdk-cli.html page in the user guide.

h3. Installation

If you are logged in to an Arvados VM, the @arv@ should be installed.

To use @arv@ elsewhere, you can either install the @arvados-cli@ gem via RubyGems or build and install the package using the arvados source tree.

h4. Prerequisites: Ruby >= 2.0.0 and curl libraries

You can use "RVM":http://rvm.io/rvm/install to install and manage Ruby versions.

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<pre>
$ <code class="userinput">sudo apt-get install curl</code>
$ <code class="userinput">sudo sh -c 'curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable'</code>
$ <code class="userinput">source /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh</code>
</pre>
</notextile>

Install curl libraries with your system's package manager. For example, with Debian or Ubuntu:

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<pre>
$ <code class="userinput">sudo apt-get install libcurl3 libcurl3-gnutls libcurl4-openssl-dev</code>
</pre>
</notextile>

h4. Option 1: install with RubyGems

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<pre>
$ <code class="userinput">sudo gem install arvados-cli</code>
</pre>
</notextile>

h4. Option 2: build and install from source

<notextile>
<pre>
$ <code class="userinput">git clone https://github.com/curoverse/arvados.git</code>
$ <code class="userinput">cd arvados/sdk/cli</code>
$ <code class="userinput">gem build arvados-cli.gemspec</code>
$ <code class="userinput">sudo gem install arvados-cli-*.gem</code>
</pre>
</notextile>