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Development Setup

Install the Bkper CLI, authenticate via Google OAuth, and verify access to your books. This single setup step unlocks CLI commands, bkper-js scripting, and the full app development toolchain.

Everything you build on Bkper starts with the CLI. It handles authentication, provides the bkper-js library for programmatic access, and manages the full app lifecycle.

Prerequisites

Install and authenticate

  1. Install the CLI

    Terminal window
    # bun (recommended)
    bun add -g bkper
    

    # npm
    npm i -g bkper

  2. Authenticate

    Terminal window
    bkper auth login

    This opens your browser for Google OAuth authentication. Once complete, the CLI stores your credentials locally. All API calls — from the CLI, from scripts, and from bkper-js — use this token. To revoke them, run bkper auth logout.

  3. Verify

    Terminal window
    bkper book list

    You should see a list of your Bkper Books. If you do, you’re ready to build.

What you now have

After setup, you have:

  • CLI commands — Manage books, accounts, transactions, and apps from the terminal. Run bkper --help for the full command list.

  • Auth provider for scripts — Use getOAuthToken() from the bkper package in any Node.js script:

    import { Bkper } from 'bkper-js';
    import { getOAuthToken } from 'bkper';
    

    Bkper.setConfig({
        oauthTokenProvider: async () => getOAuthToken(),
    });

  • App development tools — Initialize, develop, and deploy platform apps with bkper app commands.

Optional: API key

For dedicated API quota and project-level usage tracking, you can configure your own API key. This is optional — the default shared quota (60 requests per minute) works for most use cases.

See Direct API Usage for setup instructions.

Next steps