Install Ente CLI

Download the archive for your system from the latest Ente CLI release, verify it, extract the ente executable, and run ente --version.

System	Archive name ends with
Linux x86_64	-linux-amd64.tar.gz
Linux ARM64	-linux-arm64.tar.gz
macOS Intel	-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
macOS Apple silicon	-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
Windows x86_64	-windows-amd64.zip
Windows ARM64	-windows-arm64.zip

Each archive contains one file, the executable. There are no 32-bit builds.

On Linux and macOS: download the archive and SHA256SUMS from the release page, then:

cd ~/Downloads
shasum -a 256 --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
mkdir -p ~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin
tar -xzf ente-cli-vX.Y.Z-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C ~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin
~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin/ente --version

Use the name of the archive you downloaded. On Linux, sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS works as well. The check prints OK after the archive name, and the last command prints ente followed by the version.

On Linux, keep the CLI in its own directory: /usr/bin/ente may belong to the Ente Photos desktop app.

On macOS, if you downloaded the archive with a browser, the first run is refused. Remove the quarantine flag, then run it again:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin/ente

On Windows (PowerShell): download the archive and SHA256SUMS from the release page, then:

cd ~\Downloads
(Get-FileHash ente-cli-vX.Y.Z-windows-amd64.zip).Hash.ToLower()
Select-String windows-amd64 SHA256SUMS
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\EnteCLI" | Out-Null
Expand-Archive ente-cli-vX.Y.Z-windows-amd64.zip -DestinationPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\EnteCLI"
& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\EnteCLI\ente.exe" --version

Use the name of the archive you downloaded. The two hashes must match, and the last command prints ente followed by the version.

Add the CLI to your PATH

On Linux and macOS: add this line to your shell startup file (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc or ~/.config/fish/config.fish), then open a new terminal:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin:$PATH"

In fish, use fish_add_path ~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin instead.

On Windows: run this once, then open a new terminal:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\EnteCLI;" + [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User"), "User")

Enable completion

Add the line for your shell to its startup file:

Shell	Startup file	Line
Bash	~/.bashrc	eval "$(ente completion bash)"
Zsh	~/.zshrc	autoload -Uz compinit; compinit; source <(ente completion zsh)
PowerShell	$PROFILE	ente completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
Elvish	~/.config/elvish/rc.elv	eval (ente completion elvish | slurp)

Fish loads a saved script. Write it once, and again after updating:

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
ente completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ente.fish

Update

Download the new archive, verify it, and extract it over the existing executable (on Windows, add -Force to Expand-Archive). ente --version prints the new version. Your accounts and data stay in the CLI home (see Accounts).

Uninstall

Log out of each account first if you want the server to forget this device: ente account logout --account NAME. Then delete the directory that holds the executable, remove the PATH line, and delete the CLI home.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/ente/ente.git
cd ente
git checkout ente-cli-vX.Y.Z
cd rust
cargo install --locked --path apps/cli --root ~/.local/opt/ente-cli

Use the tag of the release you want, as shown on its release page. The executable is written to ~/.local/opt/ente-cli/bin/ente.