Getting Started
5 min read

Quick Start Guide

Get Kilometers monitoring set up in under 5 minutes. This guide will walk you through installation, configuration, and your first monitoring session with real CLI commands.

Updated Documentation

This guide has been updated to reflect the actual CLI commands and functionality. The Kilometers CLI works as a transparent wrapper around MCP servers - no separate "init" or "start" commands needed.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • An AI tool that supports MCP (Cursor, Claude Desktop, or VS Code with AI extensions)
  • macOS, Linux, or Windows with WSL2
  • Node.js 18+ (for MCP servers)
  • A Kilometers.ai account and API key

Installation

Option 1: Quick Install (Recommended)

TERMINAL
curl -sSL https://get.kilometers.ai/install.sh | sh

Option 2: Manual Installation

MANUAL STEPS
# Download from GitHub releases # Extract and add to PATH

Download the latest binary from our GitHub releases page, extract it, and add it to your PATH.

Verify Installation

TERMINAL
km --version

Configuration

Set your API credentials as environment variables:

TERMINAL
export KILOMETERS_API_KEY="your-api-key" export KILOMETERS_API_URL="https://api.kilometers.ai"

Get your API key: Sign up at kilometers.ai and find your API key in the dashboard.

First Monitoring Session

Now let's monitor your first MCP server. Simply prefix your existing MCP command with km:

TERMINAL
km npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

This will start the GitHub MCP server with Kilometers monitoring. You should see output like:

[km] Starting Kilometers CLI wrapper for: [npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github]
[km] Started process with PID: 12345
[km] Event #1: request tools/call (156 bytes)

Configure Your AI Tool

Update your AI tool's MCP configuration to use km instead of the direct command:

CURSOR CONFIG
{ "mcpServers": { "github": { "command": "km", "args": ["npx", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"] } } }

Debug Mode

If you want to see detailed monitoring information, enable debug mode:

TERMINAL
KM_DEBUG=true km npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

Next Steps

Explore CLI Commands

Learn about all available CLI options and environment variables.

View Commands

Set Up Filtering

Configure event filtering to capture only what you need.

Learn Filtering

Enable Risk Detection

Automatically analyze and score MCP events for security risks.

Security Guide

Configure AI Tools

Set up monitoring for Cursor, Claude Desktop, and VS Code.

Tool Setup