# Install in one command

> Install Awaitful with npx awaitful. One command finds your editor, installs the extension, and you earn while your AI coding agent thinks.

- Source: https://awaitful.com/docs/install
- Updated: July 19, 2026

Awaitful installs with one command. It finds your editor, installs the extension from that editor's own marketplace, and gets out of the way. About a minute later a single sponsored line earns for you while your AI agent thinks.

```
$ npx awaitful
Looking for a supported editor...
Found VS Code.
Installing the Awaitful extension...
Done. One step left:
Open your editor and run "Awaitful: Sign In"
from the Command Palette.
```

## What the command does

`npx awaitful` looks for the editors Awaitful supports - VS Code, Cursor, Devin (formerly Windsurf), VSCodium, and VS Code Insiders - and asks the one it finds to install the `awaitful.awaitful` extension from its marketplace: the VS Code Marketplace for VS Code, [Open VSX](https://open-vsx.org/extension/awaitful/awaitful) for the others. If it finds more than one editor it asks which you want, and it can install to all of them at once.

The installer needs Node 18 or newer, and that is its only requirement. It does not ask you to sign in, does not create an account, and does not phone home.

**The installer sends nothing, and you can check**

The [awaitful npm package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/awaitful) has zero dependencies and makes no network requests of its own - both are enforced by its test suite in the public repo, which fails the build if a network primitive ever appears in the shipped source. The only network activity is your editor downloading the extension from its own marketplace, exactly as if you had clicked Install there.

## From zero to earning

1.  ### Run the installer
    
    ```
    npx awaitful
    ```
    
    No flags needed. If you want to see exactly what it would run first, `npx awaitful --dry-run` prints the commands without executing anything - the full flag list is in the [CLI reference](https://awaitful.com/docs/cli-reference).
    
2.  ### Sign in from your editor
    
    Open your editor and run **Awaitful: Sign In** from the Command Palette. Your browser opens, you approve the link, and the machine is connected to your account so earnings are credited to you. The details of that flow - and how to revoke a machine later - are in [Sign in and link your editor](https://awaitful.com/docs/link-your-editor).
    
3.  ### Keep coding
    
    Nothing about how you code changes. When your agent starts thinking, one clearly marked sponsored line appears; when it stops, the line goes. Where it appears is up to you - see [Choose where the line appears](https://awaitful.com/docs/choose-your-surfaces).
    

## If no editor is found

The installer only automates what the marketplace pages do, so if it cannot find your editor you can always install by hand:

-   [VS Code Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=awaitful.awaitful) for VS Code and VS Code Insiders
-   [Open VSX](https://open-vsx.org/extension/awaitful/awaitful) for Cursor, Devin, and VSCodium

The usual cause is that the editor's command line tool is not on your PATH. In VS Code that is fixed by running "Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH" from the Command Palette, then running `npx awaitful` again. More cases are covered in the [CLI reference](https://awaitful.com/docs/cli-reference).

## Worth knowing before you decide

Awaitful never reads your code, your prompts, or your files - [the complete list of what leaves your machine](https://awaitful.com/docs/what-leaves-your-machine) is deliberately short, and the [client source](https://github.com/Awaitful/awaitful) is public so you do not have to take our word for it. The marketplace is young, so your first days may earn little - [Your first earnings](https://awaitful.com/docs/your-first-earnings) explains honestly what to expect.