Installation

Vibium ships as a single self-contained binary. The installer also downloads a managed copy of Google Chrome for Testing on first use, so a fresh install is a one-liner.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (only required for the npm-based installer and the JS client)
• A supported platform: Linux x64, macOS x64/arm64, or Windows x64

You do not need a pre-installed browser; Vibium downloads Google Chrome for Testing.

Install the CLI

npm install -g vibium

This installs the vibium binary globally. The first time you run any command that requires a browser, Vibium downloads its managed Google Chrome for Testing build. On macOS, the browser appears as “Google Chrome for Testing”.

Zero-install with npx

If you don’t want to install anything, every command works through npx:

npx -y vibium go https://example.com
npx -y vibium screenshot -o example.png
npx -y vibium text

npx fetches the package on demand and runs the binary. The first invocation is a little slower while npm caches the package; subsequent calls are fast. This is the most ergonomic way to try Vibium, run a one-off in CI, or script a quick task on a machine where you can’t (or don’t want to) install software globally.

For convenience in a shell, alias it:

alias vibium='npx -y vibium'

After that, every example in these docs that says vibium ... works as-is.

Install as an agent skill

If you are setting up Vibium for an AI coding agent (for example Claude Code), install it as a skill so the agent learns the full command set:

npx skills add https://github.com/VibiumDev/vibium --skill vibe-check

Install a client library

Pick the language you want to drive Vibium from:

# JavaScript / TypeScript
npm install vibium

# Python
uv add vibium

Java (Gradle):

implementation 'com.vibium:vibium:26.3.18'

Each client library bundles or locates the same vibium binary, so a single install gives you both the CLI and the programmatic API.

Verify the installation

vibium go https://example.com
vibium text

If vibium text prints the page text, the install succeeded.

Custom binary path

The Python and Java clients respect the VIBIUM_BIN_PATH environment variable, which lets you point at a custom build of the binary instead of the bundled copy. This is mostly useful for contributors and CI.

export VIBIUM_BIN_PATH=/path/to/your/vibium

Updating

Update via the same package manager you used to install:

npm update -g vibium
# or
uv add --upgrade-package vibium vibium

Uninstalling

npm uninstall -g vibium

The bundled browser lives in Vibium’s data directory; remove that directory to fully reclaim disk space.