Installation & Setup

Complete setup guide for the fal CLI and development environment. This guide covers all platforms and authentication methods.

The fal CLI is the primary tool for developing, testing, and deploying Serverless applications. This page covers installing the CLI, authenticating with your account, and switching between team contexts. By the end, you will have a working development environment ready for the Quick Start.

If you are only using Model APIs to call pre-trained models, you do not need the CLI. You only need an API key and the client SDK (fal-client for Python or @fal-ai/client for JavaScript). The CLI is specifically for the Serverless workflow: writing, testing, and deploying your own apps. For an overview of how accounts, keys, and profiles relate to each other, see Accounts and Identity.

System Requirements

• Python: 3.8 or later
• Operating System: macOS, Linux, or Windows

Install the CLI

Using pip

pip install fal

Verify Installation

Check that the CLI installed correctly:

fal --version

You should see the version number printed.

Authentication

Option 1: Interactive Login (Recommended)

fal auth login

This opens your browser to authenticate with fal. Once complete, your credentials are saved locally.

If you are a member of multiple teams, the login process will prompt you to select which team account you want to use as your default. This affects which resources you can access and deploy to.

Option 2: API Key

Create an API key at API Keys with the ADMIN scope. If creating a key for a team, make sure to select your team on the top left corner.

Set it as an environment variable:

export FAL_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Or add it to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.) to persist across sessions.

If you work with multiple API keys (for example, personal and team accounts), you can use fal profile to save keys and switch between them. See the Accounts and Identity page for details on profiles versus team switching.

Team Accounts

After authentication, you can switch between different teams or your personal account using the fal team command.

View Available Teams

To list teams that you are a member of:

fal team list

Default	Team	Full Name	ID
*	myteam	My Team	github|1kbr8zjkk377xfs5tl2erl4x
	otherteam	Other Team	github|v11vo11w2kqakm99ke00258q

The * indicates your currently active team.

Switch Teams

To switch to a different team:

fal team set otherteam

To switch back to your personal account:

fal team unset

Verify Authentication

Test your authentication setup:

fal auth whoami

This should display your account information, including your current team (if any). Example output:

User: [e-mail]
Team: myteam (My Team)

If you see an error, double-check your authentication method and API key configuration.

Upgrading

Keep your CLI up to date:

pip install --upgrade fal

Check for breaking changes in the changelog.

Getting Help

If you run into issues, fal --help and fal COMMAND --help provide inline documentation for every command. For community support, join the fal Discord. To report bugs or request features, open an issue on GitHub.