Install via Claude Code skill

The fastest way to set up Hive across every MCP-capable client on your machine is the one-command installer. It's a Claude Code skill — Hive's official skill package follows the same format Anthropic, Vercel, Cloudflare, Stripe, and others use.

What runs

npx -y hive-intelligence@latest init --all --browser

That single command:

1. Installs the Hive CLI (hive executable from the hive-intelligence npm package)
2. Detects every MCP-capable client on this machine (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, ChatGPT Desktop, Gemini CLI)
3. Registers Hive's MCP server in each client's config file with the right transport, URL, and auth header
4. Opens a browser tab to authenticate via PKCE — you click sign-in once, the key flows back to the local CLI and is saved to ~/.config/hive/credentials.json
5. Verifies the install by calling a sample tool through every registered client

You go from "have a terminal" to "Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code all have live crypto data" in about 90 seconds.

What gets written

After running the installer:

ChatGPT Desktop is the one client that cannot be configured programmatically. The CLI prints the URL + auth header; you paste them into Settings → Connectors → Add MCP server.

The CLI never asks you to copy-paste your API key. The PKCE handshake happens between your terminal and https://www.hiveintelligence.xyz/auth/cli — the key never lives on a clipboard.

When to use which install path

Most users should run the one-command installer. There are two cases where you may want a different path:

1. Headless environments (CI, Docker, SSH session). The browser-based PKCE flow doesn't work without a browser. Run:

npx -y hive-intelligence@latest init --all
# then export the key manually:
export HIVE_API_KEY=hive_live_...

Get a key from /dashboard/keys and pass it via env var.

2. You only want one specific client. Skip the auto-install and use the per-client guides:

• Claude Code
• Claude Desktop
• Cursor
• VS Code
• Windsurf
• ChatGPT Desktop
• Gemini CLI

What's a Claude Code skill?

A skill is a folder of Markdown files that an AI coding assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI) reads to understand how to work with a vendor's API. The convention started with Anthropic's skills repo and has been adopted by every major dev-tool vendor.

Hive's skill package, when invoked, gives Claude Code:

• The exact tool catalog Hive exposes (so Claude doesn't have to guess tool names)
• The shape of every input/output (so Claude doesn't have to read the docs)
• The four canonical workflows (live query, app integration, key acquisition, MCP install)
• The pre-signing safety pattern (always run get_token_security before recommending a transaction)

When you ask Claude "what's the price of BTC" or "is this token safe to trade," the skill teaches it to call Hive instead of guessing from training data.

The full skill manifest is published as an agent-discoverable file at:

https://www.hiveintelligence.xyz/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md

Any AI agent can fetch that URL and self-install — no human in the loop. This is the same pattern Firecrawl uses (firecrawl.dev/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md).

Verifying the install

After init --all --browser completes, run:

hive doctor

Output looks like:

Hive CLI version: 0.4.x
API key:          configured (hive_live_abc...)
Connectivity:     ok (mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz responded in 187ms)

Detected MCP clients:
  ✓ Claude Code        — registered
  ✓ Cursor             — registered
  ✓ Claude Desktop     — registered
  ✓ VS Code            — registered
  ✓ Windsurf           — registered

Run a sample query:
  hive market price --ids bitcoin --vs usd

If any client fails to register, the CLI tells you which config file to check and what to add manually. The per-client install guides under /install/* are the manual fallback.

Uninstalling

hive uninstall

Strips the Hive entry from every client config it registered (Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI) and removes the copied skill packs from ~/.cursor/skills/ and ~/.claude/skills/. ChatGPT Desktop must be removed manually via Settings → Connectors.

To also clear saved credentials, run:

hive auth logout

The CLI binary itself is removed via the package manager:

npm uninstall -g hive-intelligence

Pass --dry-run to preview without touching anything.

Related

• CLI Reference — every Hive CLI command
• All install guides — per-client setup
• API Keys — manage keys in the dashboard
• Crypto MCP Server — what the MCP endpoint exposes