Installing Neo and Activating Your License

Lesson 2 of 10: install the CLI and activate a free license — two commands, and there is no payment method to enter, ever.

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Neo 101 · Lesson 2 of 10

Installing Neo and Activating Your License

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Install

macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://neo.vxero.dev/neo | sh

Windows is supported too, through a separate install command — see the install page for the exact steps if that's your platform.

Confirm it worked:

neo version

This prints the installed version and checks whether a newer one is available.

Activate

Neo won't run any other command until it's activated. That sounds like the setup for a sales pitch, but there isn't one — there's no paid tier. Multi-server support, backups, parallel uploads, unlimited devices: all of it is unlocked on a free key, for anyone.

neo activate

Run it with no key and you're prompted for an email; Neo registers a free license for you automatically. If you already have a key from another machine or a teammate:

neo activate <key>

The rest of the model

Offline grace periods, device limits (there aren't any), what a grandfathered paid key from before Neo went free still gets you — all covered in Free Forever: Licensing and Activation with neo activate. This lesson only needed the two commands above.

Next: Turning a Bare VPS into a Neo Server.

Try it yourself — Neo is free, with every feature unlocked.

Get started free