Installation

Rift runs on your machine alongside your agents. To use it in a project, install the executable and configure your agent to launch it from the folder containing your codebase.

InstallCopy Anchor Link

Choose the command for your platform and run it in your terminal:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://volar.sh/rift/install.sh | bash

The installer downloads the latest verified release for your platform and installs it for the current user. To install a specific version, set the RIFT_VERSION environment variable to its release tag.

The download service counts archive requests by day, country, release, platform, and agent category. These counts measure download requests, including retries; they do not confirm successful installation. Set RIFT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true in the installer's environment to exclude its requests from counters. Standalone installers do not read project or user TOML files. After installation, run rift config set --telemetry.disabled=true --user to exclude Rift's cloud and update requests for every project. Rift sends no separate local activity reports. Privacy explains the counters and opt-out.

If the installer asks you to add its installation directory to PATH, add that directory so your terminal and agent can find rift.

MCP configurationCopy Anchor Link

Once rift is installed, your agent needs to know how to start it. In Claude Code, add the following server entry to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rift": {
      "command": "rift",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The command names the installed executable, and args selects its MCP mode. Your agent launches rift mcp from the project folder, so rift builds its local index from that project's codebase.

Tools return compact text by default. To include structured results, set args to ["mcp", "--output=all"]; Reading results explains the difference.

For another MCP client, configure it to launch the same command from your project folder. If you're using Claude Code, Usage explains how to install the Rift skill that teaches your agent which tool to call.

UpdateCopy Anchor Link

To update an existing installation, run:

rift update