Quickstart

This is the one procedure that lives in the docs, because it runs before your agent has the skill that carries every other procedure. From here on the loop lives in the skill, and the pages under Understand explain what is happening underneath it.

Reading this as a human rather than handing it to an agent? Every command below runs the same way in your own terminal. Append --human to any of them and you get prose instead of JSON.

This is the caller quickstart. Have a builder invitation? Start with the builder quickstart. Otherwise, the waitlist is open.

1. Install the CLI

npm install --ignore-scripts --global @dvmkit/dvm-cli@0.4.1

The command it installs is dvm. Keep the version below the same as this one so the CLI and skill come from the same published package.

It needs Node.js 22 or later. This release pins Node 22.18.0 and npm 10.9.3 exactly rather than naming a range, so on any other version, newer ones included, npm prints an EBADENGINE warning. The install still completes and the CLI runs.

2. Install the agent skill

The CLI is the tool; the skill is the instructions for using it. It carries the runtime loop, the failure modes, and the rules about what is safe to relay. Install it before the first job.

Install a second, local copy of that exact package to provide the skill. Its documented @dvmkit/dvm-cli/skill export resolves the entry file without guessing where a global npm install put it. Copy the whole directory so the skill can load its task procedures:

npm install --ignore-scripts --prefix "$HOME/.dvmkit" @dvmkit/dvm-cli@0.4.1
skill_path="$(NODE_PATH="$HOME/.dvmkit/node_modules" node -p "require.resolve('@dvmkit/dvm-cli/skill')")"
mkdir -p "$HOME/.claude/skills/dvm"
cp -R "$(dirname "$skill_path")/." "$HOME/.claude/skills/dvm/"

This example is for Claude Code. Codex loads the entry file from ~/.codex/skills/dvm/SKILL.md (or $CODEX_HOME/skills/dvm/SKILL.md), and Agent Skills-compatible harnesses use ~/.agents/skills/dvm/SKILL.md. Use the destination your harness recognizes; none of these harnesses is required to use the CLI. Agent setup has the full matrix, plus the network allowlist you need if the commands below fail with a network error inside a sandboxed coding agent.

3. Initialize config

dvm init

Creates ~/.dvm/config.json and a default signing identity.

4. Fund a wallet

dvm wallet setup

That lists the four funding routes, none of them the default: US dollars as USDC.e on the Tempo network, US dollars as native USDC on Base, a Lightning wallet you already run connected as a self-refilling float, and privacy-focused ecash. Each row names who it suits, the command that starts it, and the facts for this machine: the exact token, network, and address once a route is connected. Two of the four never ask you to hold Bitcoin.

Pick by where your money already lives: the funding guide settles the route in three questions and walks the money across, exchange withdrawals included. The Cashu row's setup command is dvm wallet init. Before either of its verification commands, add the primary accepted mint:

dvm wallet init
dvm wallet mint-add https://mint.coinos.io

The funding guide's Cashu mint table names the accepted fallback. If you have not picked a service yet, $1 is a practical first top-up. If you have, run dvm quote before funding and raise the amount when the live price or ceiling is higher. The funding guide explains the arithmetic and Cashu's mint-specific minimum. Then finish the selected route, send the amount, and confirm it arrived. Cashu runs both checks below; the other three routes run only dvm wallet balance:

dvm wallet mint-health
dvm wallet balance

A route that generates keys says what to back up and never prints a secret by default; wallets explains what you are trusting on each route, and every amount you type in a command stays quoted ('$5.00') so the shell cannot eat it.

5. Find a service

dvm search "transcription"

Every result carries an identifier that passes straight to the next command. One row per capability, so the identifier names both: dvmkit--scribe/transcribe is the transcribe capability of the dvmkit--scribe DVM. Save a provider you will reuse with dvm fav add. That command takes the row's endpoint, not the identifier.

6. Quote before you commit

dvm quote -d dvmkit--scribe/transcribe --param audio_url=https://example.com/audio.mp3

upfront.amount and upfront.currency are the budget number to put in front of your user before anything is spent. Use --param key=value, repeatable, for DVMs with an input schema, or -i "<text>" for the ones that take plain text. dvm describe <identifier> says which a provider expects.

A quote carries more than a price: what happens to your money if the job fails, whether the DVM offers prepaid credit, and when the quote expires. Payments covers what each field means.

7. Make the paid call

dvm request -d dvmkit--scribe/transcribe --param audio_url=https://example.com/audio.mp3 \
  --auto-pay --budget '$0.50'

--auto-pay pays without stopping to ask, but not up to the whole budget: unless you say otherwise it auto-approves a single charge only up to 20% of --budget and asks about anything larger. Set that per-charge threshold yourself with --auto-pay-below <amount>, which carries consent on its own and needs no --auto-pay.

Two fields drive everything after this.

payload_in says where the work actually is. "summary" means the summary string is the whole result. "messages" means you must run dvm messages <job-id> and read the artifacts, because relaying the summary alone loses the output.

next_action says what to do next. null means done. Otherwise it is respond (the provider asked a question), pay (a mid-job payment is due), poll (still working), refund (money is coming back to you), or one of the setup and recovery actions, which arrive carrying the exact command to run. Each one explains itself in the response; the dvm CLI reference has the full taxonomy and every shape.

Next steps

• How it works: what actually happened in steps 5 to 7.
• Wallets: where the money lives, and the other three ways to fund it.
• Budgets: what your agent can spend without asking you first.
• dvm CLI reference: every command, flag, JSON shape, and error code.