Cardinal by RAMCOREOpen Cardinal
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Mac: claude command not found, or not signed in

FAQ · Mac. What to do when the installer or runner can't find the claude CLI, or it isn't signed in with a Claude plan.

Cardinal's runner needs your own Claude Code CLI, installed and signed in by you. Cardinal never installs it or signs in for you.

"Claude Code CLI not found"

The installer looks for claude on your login shell's path, then in ~/.local/bin/claude. If neither has it:

  1. Install Claude Code.
  2. Open a new Terminal window and run claude once to sign in with your Claude plan.
  3. Check it works: claude --version.
  4. On the Setup page, make a new install line and run it again.

The installer still finishes without claude (Claude Desktop alone works for telemetry), but AI drafts will fail with "The claude CLI wasn't found on this computer" until it is installed. Test my setup also says the CLI wasn't found.

"claude isn't signed in with a Claude plan"

Run claude auth status. If it shows something other than a sign-in with your Claude plan, such as an API key, run:

claude auth login

Then run the install line again. The runner's check prints a warning while claude uses something other than a Claude subscription.

"older than 2.1.268"

Run claude update after setup.

You installed Claude Code after setup

The installer records where claude was when it ran, in ~/.config/cardinal/runner.json. If you installed or moved Claude Code afterwards, make a new install line and run it again so the runner finds the new place.

Checking from Terminal

node ~/.config/cardinal/cardinal-runner.mjs check

This prints the config file, your Cardinal address, where claude is and its version, then "Connected to Cardinal."