Install the CLI
Get the nebula command-line tool and the prerequisites for running a mesh locally.
Install the nebula command-line interface (CLI) to add Nebula to a Unity project, build the game, run it locally, and deploy it. The installed command is a self-contained executable, so it does not need a separate .NET runtime.
Prerequisites
| What | Why | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unity 6 (6000.x) | Builds workers and clients, and exports game data for the services | Nebula is developed with 6000.6. To deploy Linux servers, add the Linux Dedicated Server module. |
| .NET 10 SDK | Builds the standalone orchestrator and gateway | nebula setup installs it into ~/.dotnet if missing. Published services include their runtime and their SQLite driver. |
| Git and SSH | nebula init fetches the package, and nebula deploy connects to virtual machines | Install these tools before you run either command. |
Install
iwr https://windows.nebula.1by3.co -useb | iexThe installer puts nebula.exe in ~/.nebula-cli/bin and adds that folder to your user PATH. Open a new terminal after the installer finishes.
Hosted installer URLs
The hosted installer URLs are not available yet. For now, install from a repository checkout. You can also pass -Archive or --archive <file> to a script in cli/install/ and use an archive created by cli/scripts/package.ps1 or cli/scripts/package.sh.
If you do not provide a checkout or archive, the script downloads nebula-<version>-<rid>.zip or .tar.gz from the repository releases. Set NEBULA_VERSION to select a version. Set NEBULA_RELEASE_BASE to use a different download host.
Check the install and set up prerequisites
nebula --version
nebula setupRun nebula setup to inspect your system and install missing prerequisites. It checks the .NET 10 SDK, Git, SSH, and Unity versions registered with Unity Hub. It also reports whether each Unity installation includes Linux Dedicated Server support.
To check without installing anything, run nebula setup --check. To accept every installation prompt, run nebula setup --yes.
Environment variables
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
NEBULA_SOURCE | A checkout of the Nebula repository for the installer to build from, and for nebula init to copy Packages/com.1by3.nebula from. |
NEBULA_UNITY | Path to the Unity editor executable (or the Hub's Editor folder) nebula build should use. nebula config unity stores the same thing. |
NEBULA_CLI_HOME | Where the CLI keeps its binary, config and scratch builds (default ~/.nebula-cli). |
HCLOUD_TOKEN | Hetzner Cloud API token; always takes precedence over the one stored by nebula config hetzner, so CI can deploy without a config file. |