> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://platform.bctrl.ai/llms.txt.
> For full documentation content, see https://platform.bctrl.ai/llms-full.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://platform.bctrl.ai/_mcp/server.

# Quickstart

> Install the CLI, authenticate, and launch your first runtime from the terminal.

Install the CLI, authenticate, and launch a cloud browser in six steps.

## 1. Install

```bash
npm install -g @bctrl/cli
bctrl version
```

## 2. Authenticate

```bash
bctrl auth login
bctrl auth status
```

In CI or an agent, set an API key instead:

```bash
export BCTRL_API_KEY="bctrl_..."
```

## 3. Launch a runtime

```bash
bctrl runtime create --name quickstart --json
bctrl runtime start rt_123 --json
```

`runtime start` returns a run-scoped `connectUrl` and a `runId`. Pull just the connect URL with `--jq`:

```bash
bctrl runtime start rt_123 --json --jq '.connectUrl'
```

## 4. Drive it

Either connect your own tooling to the `connectUrl` over CDP, or run a hosted agent invocation:

```bash
bctrl runtime invocation create rt_123 \
  --action extract \
  --instruction "Extract the page title" \
  --json
```

## 5. Inspect the run

```bash
bctrl run get run_123 --json
bctrl run events list run_123 --json
bctrl run live run_123 --json
```

## 6. Stop the runtime

```bash
bctrl runtime stop rt_123 --json
```

## Next

* [Output & scripting](/cli/output) - JSON, jq, and templates
* [Agents and CI](/cli/agents) - run the CLI from automation
* [Command reference](/cli/reference) - the full command tree