# taskfuel: CLI setup

> One of three alternative ways to set taskfuel up, and the preferred one wherever you can run shell commands. If you are following this one, it is the only one you do. Do not also add the MCP server.

- Install the CLI: `curl -fsSL https://taskfuel.ai/install.sh | sh`
- Check the connection with `taskfuel whoami`. **Read its output, don't just check that it succeeded**: it prints the account email and the gateway. A machine can already be connected to a different account than the one the user just set up, and every later call would spend that account's money. If the email is not the user's, stop and ask before doing anything that costs money.
- If it is not connected, run `taskfuel connect` **in the background** and read its output straight away. It prints a verification URL and a code and then blocks until the user approves in a browser, so running it in the foreground hides the URL behind a command that will not return until the thing you need the URL for has already happened. Give the user the URL and the code, then wait for the command to exit and confirm with `taskfuel whoami`. Note that connecting replaces any existing connection on this machine, so confirm with the user first if one is already there.
- Install or refresh the canonical skill: `taskfuel sync-skill`. This writes into the user's global skills directory and overwrites what is there, so ask first.

The [canonical taskfuel skill](https://app.taskfuel.ai/releases/skills/taskfuel/SKILL.md) is what `taskfuel sync-skill` installs: the detailed workflow and spending rules, if you want to read it directly.

Next: [Using taskfuel](https://app.taskfuel.ai/using.md), which covers quoting before you pay, the spending limits, and what to show the user first.