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Installation

Vibrant can be used without installation via npx, or installed globally for faster access.

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Prerequisites

Vibrant requires Node.js 18.0.0 or higher. Check your version with node --version.

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Installation methods

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Verify installation

Check that Vibrant is installed correctly: 
vibrant --version
You should see the version number printed to the console.

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AI provider setup (optional)

AI-powered analysis is optional. Vibrant works great with just static analysis (no API keys needed).
If you want to use AI-powered analysis, you’ll need to configure an API key for one of the supported providers:
ProviderEnvironment VariableFree TierRecommended Model
OpenRouterOPENROUTER_API_KEY✅ Free modelsgoogle/gemini-2.0-flash-lite-001
GeminiGOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY✅ Free tiergemini-2.0-flash-lite
OpenAIOPENAI_API_KEY❌ Paidgpt-4o-mini
ClaudeANTHROPIC_API_KEY❌ Paidclaude-3-haiku-20240307
OllamaOLLAMA_HOST✅ Local, freellama3.2

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Configure API keys

Choose one of these methods:
1

Create a .env file

Create a .env file in your project directory:
# .env
OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."
The .env file should be in the same directory where you run vibrant .
2

Or set environment variable

Set the environment variable in your shell:
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."

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Get API keys

OpenRouter

Free models available. Best for getting started.

Google Gemini

Generous free tier. No credit card required.

OpenAI

Paid service. GPT-4o-mini is cost-effective.

Anthropic Claude

Paid service. Claude 3 Haiku is fast and affordable.

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Ollama (local AI)

For privacy-focused users, run AI analysis completely offline with Ollama:
1

Install Ollama

Download and install Ollama from ollama.ai
2

Pull a model

ollama pull llama3.2
3

Set the host (optional)

If Ollama is running on a non-default port:
export OLLAMA_HOST="http://localhost:11434"
4

Run Vibrant with Ollama

vibrant . --ai --provider ollama

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Create a configuration file (optional)

Vibrant works with zero configuration. Only create a config file if you want to customize behavior.
Generate a configuration file: 
vibrant init
This creates a vibrant.config.js file:
vibrant.config.js
module.exports = {
  // Directories to ignore during analysis
  ignore: ['node_modules', '.git', 'dist', '.next', 'build', 'coverage'],
  
  // Output format: 'pretty', 'compact' or 'plan'
  format: 'pretty',
  
  // AI Provider configuration (optional)
  // provider: 'openrouter', // 'openai' | 'claude' | 'gemini' | 'ollama' | 'openrouter'
};

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Next steps

Quick start

Learn how to use Vibrant to analyze your code

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