Setup

Prerequisites

To use JetBrains Central CLI, you need:

A JetBrains Account with an active AI subscription. The subscription can come from your own license or from an organization you belong to.
A supported operating system: macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon), Linux (amd64 or arm64), or Windows (amd64).
Any modern browser. Required for logging in to your JetBrains Account.
Network access to *.jetbrains.com, *.jetbrains.ai, and *.grazie.ai.
At least one supported agent, installed separately. See below.

Optionally, JetBrains Central CLI uses your system keychain — macOS Keychain, Linux Secret Service over D-Bus, or Windows Credential Manager — to protect the credentials it stores on disk.

Install the agents you want to use

If you have no agents installed, install one to start with — you can add the others later at any time. JetBrains Central CLI configures agents; it does not install them. Install each agent the way its own documentation describes.

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

npm install -g @openai/codex

Follow the instructions in the Gemini CLI documentation.

Follow the instructions on the Junie page.

curl -fsSL https://pi.dev/install.sh | sh

Alternatively:

npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

Install JetBrains Central CLI

The install script detects your operating system and architecture, downloads the matching build, and places the central command in ~/.local/bin.

curl -fsSL https://central-cli.labs.jb.gg/install.sh | bash

irm https://central-cli.labs.jb.gg/install.ps1 | iex

                    curl -fsSL -o %TEMP%\install.cmd https://central-cli.labs.jb.gg/install.cmd && %TEMP%\install.cmd
                

To confirm that the installation succeeded, check the version:

central --version

Log in

Logging in is what connects JetBrains Central CLI to your AI subscription. Until you do, agents cannot route anything.

central login

Your browser opens for JetBrains login. Once you approve, control returns to the terminal on its own.

If your account has more than one enabled AI access source (e.g., a personal license and one or more organization workspaces) you are asked which one this machine should use. Whatever you pick is what your agent usage is billed against. To see the current choice or change it later:

central access

Run central.
On a machine that has never been logged in, JetBrains Central CLI starts the login flow automatically — you do not have to run central login as a separate step.
Approve the login in your browser. JetBrains Central CLI then continues to the main menu.

You stay logged in across sessions and reboots; JetBrains Central CLI renews your credentials in the background, so long stretches of work are not interrupted by a request to log in again. To check where you stand:

central status

The next step after you are logged in is to connect your agents.

Log out

central logout

Logging out deletes your stored credentials and stops the proxy. Your agents stay wired and your settings are kept, so signing back in with central login puts everything back the way it was — there is no need to reconnect agents.

Log out from the interactive interface

Run central.
Go to More... | Logout.

Update JetBrains Central CLI

JetBrains Central CLI updates itself in place: it downloads the new build and replaces the current one. Your settings, credentials, and wired agents are preserved.

central update

This reports the version it would install and asks for confirmation. Add --install to skip the prompt, and --target-version to choose a specific build instead of the latest one:

            central update --install
            central update --target-version 1.2.3 --install
        

Update from the interactive interface

Run central.
Go to More... | Check for updates.
If an update is available, confirm to install it.

Wired agents also check for a pending update when they start, and install it before the request goes through. So in day-to-day use you are usually up to date without doing anything.

If you need to stay on a particular version, pin it. Pinned installations stop following the release channel until you unpin them:

            central config set release-track 1.2.3     # pin
            central config set release-track stable    # unpin
        

Uninstall JetBrains Central CLI

To remove JetBrains Central CLI and the data it keeps on your machine:

central uninstall

You are asked to confirm before anything is deleted. Add --yes to skip the prompt, which is what you want in a script:

central uninstall --yes

Uninstall from the interactive interface

Run central.
Go to More... | Uninstall JetBrains Central CLI.
Confirm when JetBrains Central CLI lists what it will remove.

Uninstalling:

Stops the proxy.
Deletes your stored credentials, along with the keychain entry protecting them.
Removes the JetBrains Central CLI data directory.
Disconnects every connected agent.

The agents themselves stay installed — only the routing JetBrains Central CLI added to them is taken out, so each one goes back to reaching its provider directly.