Current availability
Theanarlog executable includes both the CLI and the local MCP server.
Install from the desktop app
Open Settings → Developers and select Install (or Reinstall). Direct-download desktop builds copy the bundled CLI onto your PATH.
On macOS and Linux, add
~/.local/bin to PATH if your shell cannot find anarlog:
The Mac App Store build does not include bundled CLI installation. Use build from source instead.
Build from source
To build the CLI yourself instead:cargo installs the executable into its configured binary directory, normally ~/.cargo/bin. Add that directory to PATH if your shell cannot find anarlog.
Connect to local data
By default, the CLI looks foranarlog/app.db in your operating system’s application-data directory. It also recognizes legacy Anarlog locations.
Open the desktop app once so it can create the database. After that, the CLI and local MCP server work while the app is closed.
For a custom database location, pass a global option or environment variable:
app.db, use:
anarlog mcp, open the same file for writes so they can stage or discard pending edits. They do not create a database or run migrations.