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title Installation

Vibium ships as a single self-contained binary. The installer also downloads a managed copy of Google Chrome for Testing on first use, so a fresh install is a one-liner.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+ (only required for the npm-based installer and the JS client)
  • A supported platform: Linux x64/arm64, macOS x64/arm64, or Windows x64

You do not need a pre-installed browser; Vibium downloads Google Chrome for Testing. Firefox is also supported — see Browser engines below.

Install the CLI

npm install -g vibium

This installs the vibium binary globally. The first time you run any command that requires a browser, Vibium downloads its managed Google Chrome for Testing build. On macOS, the browser appears as "Google Chrome for Testing".

Guided setup

vibium setup and vibium ready are in the nightly builds and the next npm release.

After installing, vibium setup walks you through the rest in one step: it prompts for AI settings (used by run and check), installs agent skills for agents already present on the machine, downloads the browser, and finishes with a readiness check:

vibium setup

Every part is optional and can run on its own (vibium setup browser, vibium setup ai, vibium setup skills). In CI or from an agent, use vibium setup --non-interactive.

Zero-install with npx

If you don't want to install anything, every command works through npx:

npx -y vibium go https://example.com
npx -y vibium screenshot -o example.png
npx -y vibium text

npx fetches the package on demand and runs the binary. The first invocation is a little slower while npm caches the package; subsequent calls are fast. This is the most ergonomic way to try Vibium, run a one-off in CI, or script a quick task on a machine where you can't (or don't want to) install software globally.

For convenience in a shell, alias it:

alias vibium='npx -y vibium'

After that, every example in these docs that says vibium ... works as-is.

Install as an agent skill

If you are setting up Vibium for an AI coding agent, install its skills so the agent learns the full command set. Vibium detects Claude Code (~/.claude) and Grok (~/.grok or $GROK_HOME) and installs the browser and check skills for each agent present:

vibium add-skill

Use --agent claude, --agent grok, or --agent all to choose explicitly. vibium setup runs the same installation as part of guided setup.

Browser engines

Chrome is the default engine. Firefox is supported as an alternative, using Firefox's native WebDriver BiDi — no driver binary involved:

vibium install --engine firefox

Each engine auto-installs on first launch on macOS and Linux, so an explicit vibium install is only needed to pre-download. Every command accepts --engine chrome|firefox, or set VIBIUM_ENGINE=firefox once. On Windows, Firefox auto-install is not available: install Firefox yourself and point VIBIUM_ENGINE_PATH at firefox.exe.

--channel (or VIBIUM_ENGINE_CHANNEL) selects the Firefox release channel (release or beta). On nightly builds, channels extend to Chrome (stable, beta, dev, canary), Vibium installs the known-good browser version baked into the release by default, and VIBIUM_ENGINE_VERSION pins an exact version for CI fleets. See Using Firefox for details.

Install a client library

Pick the language you want to drive Vibium from:

# JavaScript / TypeScript
npm install vibium

# Python
uv add vibium

Java (Gradle):

implementation 'com.vibium:vibium:26.8.21'

Each client library bundles or locates the same vibium binary, so a single install gives you both the CLI and the programmatic API.

Verify the installation

vibium go https://example.com
vibium text

If vibium text prints the page text, the install succeeded. On nightly builds, vibium ready runs the same verification as a proper diagnostic: it checks the installed browser files (and, if configured, the AI provider for run and check) and prints what is missing.

Custom binary path

The Python and Java clients respect the VIBIUM_BIN_PATH environment variable, which lets you point at a custom build of the binary instead of the bundled copy. This is mostly useful for contributors and CI.

export VIBIUM_BIN_PATH=/path/to/your/vibium

Updating

Update via the same package manager you used to install:

npm update -g vibium
# or
uv add --upgrade-package vibium vibium

Uninstalling

npm uninstall -g vibium

The bundled browser lives in Vibium's data directory; remove that directory to fully reclaim disk space.