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Last updated: Nov 2026 · kx 0.2.1

Guide

Use KinetixAI from your terminal

Install kx, create a personal API token, sign in, and ask KinetixAI questions from your terminal. About five minutes, start to finish.

What a token is. A personal API token lets the kx command line act as you, without your password. Make one per computer and revoke it any time on your API tokens page. A token can ask KinetixAI and read your Research RAG; it cannot change your password, make payments, see your browsing history or create more tokens.

Steps

  1. Install kx

    kx needs Python 3.10 or newer. Check with python3 --version (Windows: py --version). The macOS built-in Python is 3.9, so install a newer one first if needed: brew install [email protected], or from python.org.

    macOS and Linux

    curl -fsSL https://kinetixai.ai/install.sh | sh

    Windows (PowerShell)

    irm https://kinetixai.ai/install.ps1 | iex

    Any OS, with pipx

    pipx install "kinetixai[rag,mcp]"

    The installers never ask for sudo or Administrator, check the download's SHA-256 before installing, and replace an older kx cleanly. Then check it works:

    kx --version      # kx 0.2.1
kx doctor         # checks Python, config, network and optional extras

    No Python at all? Download a standalone binary for macOS, Linux or Windows from the GitHub releases and check it against SHA256SUMS.

  2. Create a token

    1. Sign in and open kinetixai.ai/account/tokens/ (also linked from your workspace).
    2. Under New token, give it a name you'll recognise, such as macbook or work-laptop.
    3. Pick when it expires: 30 days, 90 days (default), 1 year or never. Shorter is safer.
    4. Click Create token. The token, starting with kx_, is shown once. Copy it now; we only keep a fingerprint of it, so it can't be shown again.

    Lost it? Revoke it on the same page and create a new one.

  3. Sign in kx with the token

    kx login
# Paste your token when asked (the input stays hidden), then press Enter.

    kx keeps the token in your OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Secret Service on Linux) when available, otherwise in a file only your user can read. It never prints the token and only sends it over HTTPS.

    Scripts and CI (no prompt)

    # from a file or secret store
kx login --token-stdin < ~/.kinetixai-token

# or per command, without saving it
KX_TOKEN=kx_your_token_here kx whoami

  4. Check you're signed in

    kx whoami         # your name, email and plan
kx doctor         # everything ready?

  5. Ask KinetixAI

    kx ask "What is the difference between MoE and Mixture of Agents?"
kx ask "Summarise the main result of TriShieldRAG" --json   # machine-readable

    kx ask uses KXAI: questions about KinetixAI are answered from the site's own pages and cite them as [1], [2]; AI research questions get a general answer with no citations; out-of-scope questions are declined. See KXAI for the safety checks and per-minute and per-session limits, which apply to tokens too. kx ask counts toward your account's daily limit: Ask KinetixAI: 20 questions a day without an account, 60 with a free account, 300 on Scholar and 1,000 on Professional. If no model can answer you'll see "The AI service is unavailable right now. Try again in a moment."; wait a few seconds and ask again.

  6. Everything else kx can do

    These work without a token too. See the full command reference.

    kx search "flash attention" -n 10        # arXiv, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex
kx get 2205.14135 --pdf                  # fetch a paper (and its PDF)
kx code 2205.14135                       # the paper's code on GitHub
kx models llama                          # models on Hugging Face
kx datasets squad                        # datasets on Hugging Face
kx library add 1706.03762                # your local paper library
kx cite 1706.03762 --format bibtex       # BibTeX or APA
kx rag index && kx rag ask "what does LoRA freeze?"   # private, on your machine
kx mcp --config claude-desktop           # plug kx into your AI agent

  7. Manage and revoke tokens

    • See your tokens: /account/tokens/ lists each token's name, first characters, when it was created, last used and when it expires.
    • Sign this computer out: kx logout revokes the token on our side and forgets it here. kx logout --local only forgets it here.
    • Lost a laptop? Click Revoke next to its token. It stops working immediately.
    • Changed your password? All tokens made before the reset stop working; create a new one.
    • You can have up to 20 active tokens and create up to 10 an hour.

Troubleshooting

You seeWhyFix
Requires-Python >=3.10 / "No matching distribution"Your pip is an older Python (macOS ships 3.9).Use the installer or pipx, or python3.12 -m pip install kinetixai.
curl: (56) ... 404 on install.shTypo in the URL, or an old cached page.Copy the command from this page exactly; try again in a minute.
pipx: "A virtual environment already exists"An older installer and a uv-backed pipx.Run the installer again (fixed), or pipx uninstall kinetixai then install.
"You've used today's … questions"The daily Ask KinetixAI limit for your plan.Wait for it to reset (within 24 hours), or see plans for a higher limit.
kx whoami: not signed in / 401Token revoked, expired, mistyped, or made before a password reset.Create a new token and run kx login again.
Signed in, but against the wrong sitekx is pointed at another endpoint.kx config get endpoint; reset with kx config set endpoint https://kinetixai.ai.
kx ask: "The AI service is unavailable right now"None of the AI models answered.Wait a few seconds and ask again.
Behind a company proxy or private package mirrorpip uses your company's index.Add --index-url https://pypi.org/simple to pip/pipx commands.
"Too many attempts"Rate limit on token creation (10 an hour).Wait, then try again.

Still stuck? Run kx doctor --json and email the output to [email protected]. Never include your token.