Installation
Get DecisionNode running on your machine. You can install it globally or use it via NPX.
Method 1: Global CLI (Recommended)
Installing globally gives you access to the decide and decisionnode commands anywhere in your terminal. It also installs decide-mcp for AI integrations.
npm install -g decisionnode
Verify the installation:
decide help
Method 2: NPX (No Installation)
NPX downloads the package temporarily from npm, runs it, and discards it after. Nothing is installed on your machine permanently.
npx decide help
You can also use npx decisionnode <command> as the full package name.
NPX is fine for trying DecisionNode out, but for regular use you'll want the global install — it gives you persistent access to
decide, decisionnode, and decide-mcp without re-downloading every time.What gets installed
The package installs three executables:
decideThe CLI tool (short alias)decisionnodeThe CLI tool (full name)decide-mcpThe MCP server — you don't run this directly. AI clients (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) launch it automatically in the background via their MCP config.Troubleshooting
Permission Errors
If you see EACCES errors when installing globally on macOS or Linux:
sudo npm install -g decisionnode
Execution Policy (Windows)
On PowerShell, if you cannot run the command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser