Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20.12 or later
• iOS / tvOS: macOS with Xcode installed. Apple TV uses tvOS simulators, and Xcode downloads the tvOS runtime on demand.
• Android / Android TV: Android SDK Platform Tools (adb) on PATH, plus the Android Emulator package to boot AVDs from Argent. Create AVDs via Android Studio or avdmanager.
• Fire TV (Vega): the Vega SDK (vega CLI) on PATH, plus Android SDK Platform Tools (adb) on PATH. Most Vega tools, including UI inspection and screenshots, run over adb.
• Electron / Chromium: nothing extra to control an already running app. Launch it with --remote-debugging-port, or let Argent spawn your Electron app for you.

Run init in your project

npx @swmansion/argent@latest init

In a pnpm project, where npm's devEngines check may refuse to run npx:

pnpm dlx @swmansion/argent@latest init

The installation wizard:

• installs @swmansion/argent globally,
• detects your editor and registers the MCP server,
• copies skills, rules and agent definitions into your workspace.

The wizard detects your editors, then asks where the MCP server should live

Manual install

npm install -g @swmansion/argent
argent init

Share Argent with your team

By default Argent installs globally. To version Argent with your repo, so every teammate gets the same setup on npm install, choose the local mode:

npx @swmansion/argent@latest init --local

This adds @swmansion/argent to your project's devDependencies and writes MCP configs that launch the project-local copy. Commit package.json and your lockfile, the generated MCP config (.mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json, and so on), .argent/install.json, and the skills, rules and agents files. Teammates then run npm install.

Pass --global to force the default mode in scripts. --local and --global are mutually exclusive. A non-interactive (--yes) run defaults to global unless the project already opted into local mode.

Add --no-telemetry to also commit a telemetry opt-out for the repository. Local mode then writes .argent/config.json with telemetry.enabled: false, which turns telemetry off on every clone. See Telemetry and privacy.

note

In local mode the committed MCP config runs the project-local copy, so the bare argent command is not on teammates' PATH. Note that npm install builds Argent's native dependencies (tree-sitter) on each machine. These are prebuilt for macOS, Linux x64 and Windows x64; other targets compile from source and need a C/C++ toolchain.

Linux hosts running Android emulators

Argent runs Android emulators on Linux, but a few host-side knobs matter:

• KVM access. Without /dev/kvm the emulator falls back to slow software emulation. Enable virtualization in BIOS/UEFI and add your user to the kvm group:

  sudo usermod -aG kvm "$USER"
  # log out and back in so the new group takes effect

• GPU mode. Argent picks -gpu swiftshader on Linux for universal compatibility. Override it with ARGENT_EMULATOR_GPU_MODE=host if you have verified that hardware GL works on your machine.

• System image. Prefer the default or google_apis variants of x86_64 images. Always pick x86_64 on Intel and AMD hosts, since ARM images run through QEMU translation and are dramatically slower.

• AVD resources. Stock 2 GB / 4 vCPU AVDs can be CPU-starved by a concurrent Gradle build. Bump hw.ramSize, hw.cpu.ncore and vm.heapSize in ~/.android/avd/<name>.avd/config.ini.

• Headless mode. Export ARGENT_EMULATOR_NO_WINDOW=1 before starting the tool-server in CI, containers or Wayland-only sessions.