Install & onboarding

The dial CLI is the fastest way to use Dial and the surface most agents drive. Install it once, sign up, and you’re authenticated for every command.

Install

$
npm install -g @getdial/cli

Requires Node 22 or newer. Confirm the install:

$
dial --version

Create an account

Dial uses one-time codes — no password. Creating an account needs a verified email and a verified phone number.

$
dial auth login you@example.com              # emails a 6-digit code
$
dial auth verify-otp --code 123456           # verifies your email
$
dial auth register-number +14155550123       # texts a 6-digit code
$
dial auth verify-otp --number --code 654321  # verifies your phone, finishes setup

Each step prints the command to run next, so you can follow the flow without memorizing it.

register-number requires a number that can receive SMS — use one you keep. A Dial number can’t be used to register a Dial account.

The final step creates your account, issues an API key, saves it locally, and provisions your first phone number. That number starts with a default inbound voice-agent prompt; change it with dial number set.

If you need to pass the email verification explicitly, use --verification-id <id>; otherwise the CLI uses the pending sign-up from the previous step.

Sign in to an existing account

Signing in needs only the email steps — you’re never asked for a phone number again:

$
dial auth login you@example.com
$
dial auth verify-otp --code 123456

Check your setup

$
dial doctor

doctor reports your account, saved key, and number — and tells you the next step if anything is missing. Add --json for machine-readable output.

Where your key is stored

Once verification completes, your key lives in ~/.local/share/dial/auth.v1.json (honoring XDG_DATA_HOME). Every dial command reads it automatically — you never paste your key again. The v1 in the name is the file’s schema version: when an update changes a state file’s shape, the CLI migrates the old file forward on first read, so updates never lose your sign-in.

Pointing at another environment

Set DIAL_API_URL to send CLI requests to a different deployment:

$
export DIAL_API_URL=https://api.getdial.ai

Identifying the tool driving the CLI

If you’re embedding the CLI in your own product or agent runtime, set DIAL_USER_AGENT so your traffic is identifiable:

$
export DIAL_USER_AGENT="nanoclaw/1.1.1"

Your value is prepended to the CLI’s own User-Agent, which is always still sent:

User-Agent: nanoclaw/1.1.1 @getdial/cli/0.36.0

It never replaces the CLI’s identifier. Use the conventional name/version form. Leave the variable unset and the header goes out unchanged.

Updating

The CLI keeps itself current. At most once an hour, any command spawns a detached background npm install -g @getdial/cli@latest (global npm installs only — npx runs already resolve the latest version on each invocation). The background check never touches a command’s output; its progress lands in ~/.local/state/dial/cli.log. Set DIAL_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 to turn it off.

To update on demand:

$
dial update

If the background listen service is running, it notices the new version within a couple of minutes and restarts itself onto it.

Uninstall

$
dial uninstall

One command removes everything Dial put on the machine — the listen daemon, the installed agent skills, and all local state including the saved API key — then prints the final step:

$
npm uninstall -g @getdial/cli

Uninstall is local-only: your account and numbers are untouched. Coming back is the same email flow — dial auth login + dial auth verify-otp.

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