---
title: "Client CLI"
url: "https://control.actana.ai/docs/get-started/client-cli"
description: "Install the actana CLI as a client of Cores running elsewhere — the only native path on Windows."
updated: 2026-09-01T09:02:56+00:00
---

Just the `actana` command, as a **client** of Cores running elsewhere — a teammate's workstation, a server, a Compose stack. Nothing is installed on the Core's side by this path, and nothing here turns your machine into a Core. This is the only native path on **Windows**.

Install it — Node 22 or newer:

```bash
npm install -g @actana/cli
```

Windows (PowerShell):

```powershell
npm install -g @actana/cli
```

Confirm it answers:

```bash
actana --version
```

Pair it to a Core. Somebody on that machine runs `actana pair new` — since 0.4.3 that prints, beside the code, a ready-to-paste command with every value already in it. Paste it here, swapping `NAME` for what this machine should call the Core:

```bash
actana core pair NAME core.example:8443 XXXX-XXXX --session <id> --fingerprint AA:BB:…
```

At a terminal, success answers with a framed confirmation and the next steps already spelled out. Select it:

```bash
actana core use NAME
```

And drive it:

```bash
actana project ls
```

```bash
actana session start api "fix the failing test" --harness claude-code
```

## Where to next

- What pairing just did, and why the fingerprint is compared before the code is sent: [How Pairing Works](/docs/pairing/how-pairing-works).
- Every client command — `core`, `project`, `harness`, `events`, `session`: [CLI Commands](/docs/cli/commands).
- What Windows can and cannot run, and where the Core lives instead (WSL2, Docker Desktop, another machine): [Windows](/docs/install/windows).