You're in. Here's how to activate your license.

Fastest path — one command

Installs the CLI, saves your license key, and runs a real smoke test — replaces everything in steps 1-3 below. Your key alone unlocks the download: no GitHub account, no Node toolchain, nothing built on your machine.

curl -sSL https://mcp.gawk.dev/install.sh | bash -s -- your-key-from-our-email

Prefer to see each step, or on a platform the script doesn't cover (Windows)? Do it manually below.

1. Get the paid CLI

The paid pillars (monitor, enforce) ship separately from the free tools. The installer fetches them as a pre-built, checksum-verified package, gated on your licence key — nothing else to set up. (Lost your key? email us and we'll resend it.)

curl -fsSL https://mcp.gawk.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- your-key-from-our-email

This installs mcpgawk, the one binary — the paid pillars become its subcommands and the free scanner is already there. There is also a GitHub fallback route: if the download is ever unavailable, the installer falls back to the private repo, which needs the read-only collaborator invite from our email accepted first. (If you only want the free scanner on its own, that's the separate, public uv tool install --force mcpgawk — no key needed for that one.)

2. Set your license key

mcpgawk login your-key-from-our-email

Saves the key to ~/.gawk/config (mode 0600) so you don't need to export it or edit a shell profile yourself. For CI, set GAWK_LICENSE_KEY as a secret instead — env var takes priority over a saved key.

3. Verify it's working

mcpgawk enforce status

The first time you run any paid pillar (enforce, monitor) on a machine, it activates your key — this registers that machine as one of your license's seats (up to 3 per key). After that, it's checked automatically before each run, with a 24-hour local cache so you're not making a network call on every single command.

4. Run the paid pillars

mcpgawk verify is free and needs no key — sandboxed behavioural verification ships with the open-source scanner. A licence adds the capabilities below.

mcpgawk enforce serve ... — the gateway: one endpoint in front of your MCP fleet, per-principal keys and policy, hash-chained audit

mcpgawk monitor run --config . — continuous drift monitoring

mcpgawk build openapi.json — generate an MCP server from an OpenAPI spec (in development)

Run mcpgawk <pillar> --help for each tool's own full usage — mcpgawk passes your arguments straight through, it doesn't reinterpret them.

Troubleshooting

• "license required" / exits immediately — GAWK_LICENSE_KEY isn't set, or isn't set in the shell/process actually running the command (common in CI: check it's in the job's env, not just your local shell).
• Works locally, fails offline — the license is checked against Lemon Squeezy's API. If you're offline and your last successful check was within the last 24 hours, it still works. Beyond 24 hours offline, it fails closed until you're back online.
• "used on too many machines" — each key activates up to 3 machines. Email us to add seats or reset an old machine's activation.
• Still stuck — email hello@nativerse-ventures.com.

What's free vs. paid