Install & connect

Get Olef onto the machine where your coding agent runs, then choose a local device or Olef Cloud. If you want to build through conversation, you can ask your agent to walk you through these steps.

Install the CLI

macOS with Homebrew

brew install olef-dev/tap/olef

macOS or Linux with the installer

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/olef-dev/olef/releases/latest/download/olef-installer.sh | sh

Windows with Scoop

scoop bucket add olef https://github.com/olef-dev/scoop-bucket
scoop install olef

Alternatively, download the binary for your system from GitHub Releases.

Check your installation:

olef --version
olef init

init asks before installing or updating the Claude Code and Codex plugins. It also installs skills for other supported agents. Follow the agent setup guide after installation.

Use a local emulator or phone

Local device control needs Android Platform Tools (adb) on your PATH. Building an app locally also needs its Android SDK, JDK, and Gradle setup. Android Studio can manage the SDK and emulator for you; Olef works alongside it.

1. Start an existing Android emulator, or connect a phone with USB debugging enabled.
2. On a physical phone, accept the USB debugging authorization prompt.
3. Check the connection:

olef devices
olef connect
olef ui dump

connect installs the matching Olef device service and verifies the connection. ui dump should return structured screen information. With more than one device, select one explicitly:

olef --device emulator-5554 connect
olef --device emulator-5554 ui dump

Replace emulator-5554 with the serial from olef devices. For reusable project bindings, see configuration.

Use Olef Cloud

Olef Cloud supplies the Android build environment and emulator. You do not need a local Android SDK, Android Studio, or adb for that path. You still need your coding agent and the Olef CLI when using the CLI workflow.

Cloud access is currently gated. Sign in if you have access, or join the waitlist. Then follow Start a cloud workspace.

Check success

You are ready when your agent can read the app’s current screen and identify an element from it. Ask:

Use Olef to inspect the current Android screen. Tell me which app is open
and what I can interact with. Do not change anything yet.

If the device is missing or connection fails, start with troubleshooting.

Keep Olef up to date

olef update prints the update command for your installation; it does not perform the update itself. After updating, run olef init to refresh agent integrations. See updating.