Installation

docsxai needs Node.js 20 or newer and a Chromium binary. Everything else is plain npm packages.

From npm

One global install of the bare docsxai package gives you the whole CLI:

pnpm add -g docsxai

docsxai is the batteries-included meta-package - its bin runs @docsxai/engine’s CLI in-process, and it depends on @docsxai/viewer so the docsxai-viewer bin (which docsxai render spawns) lands on your path too. Render works out of the box.

Prefer granular installs? The scoped packages are the same code:

pnpm add -g @docsxai/engine @docsxai/viewer

Use @docsxai/engine directly when you want the engine as a library dependency (flow-file parser, deterministic runtime, exporters) - the bare package re-exports it, but depending on the engine keeps your tree minimal.

Playwright’s Chromium is installed explicitly as a one-shot, never as an install-time lifecycle script:

npx playwright-core install chromium

Claude Code users can additionally install @docsxai/plugin, the first-class invocation surface for agent-driven calibration. The CLI does not depend on it; every deterministic command works standalone.

From source

Clone the repo and build the workspace. The repo uses pnpm via Corepack, so corepack enable is the only setup:

git clone https://github.com/kalebteccom/docsxai
cd docsxai
corepack enable          # provides pnpm
pnpm install
pnpm -C packages/engine exec playwright-core install chromium
pnpm -r build

The CLI binary lands at packages/engine/dist/cli.js. Two ways to put it on PATH:

# Option A - wrapper scripts (sidesteps pnpm-global-store quirks):
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
printf '#!/usr/bin/env bash\nexec node "%s/packages/engine/dist/cli.js" "$@"\n' "$(pwd)" > "$HOME/.local/bin/docsxai"
chmod +x "$HOME/.local/bin/docsxai"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

# Option B - pnpm global link (when the store is consistent):
pnpm -C packages/engine link --global

The wrapper-script route is the robust one: pnpm global links break with ERR_PNPM_UNEXPECTED_STORE on long-lived machines, and the wrapper sidesteps that entirely. Add a matching docsxai-viewer wrapper pointing at packages/viewer/dist/index.js if you build the viewer from source too.

Verify

docsxai --help

You should see the usage block listing init, run, render, capture-auth, and the rest of the surface in the CLI reference. For a full environment health-check - Node version, Chromium, viewer resolution, and more - run docsxai doctor; every failing row prints its own one-line fix. If run later complains that no Chromium binary is found, the fix is the same one-shot install: npx playwright-core install chromium (from a source checkout: pnpm -C packages/engine exec playwright-core install chromium).

Next: the Quickstart.