---
title: CommandBox
description: A versatile CLI for managing most things including your local dev environment
---

CommandBox (CB) developed by Ortus Solutions ([http://www.ortussolutions.com](http://www.ortussolutions.com))  is a Command Line Interface (“CLI”) which makes many routine and complex tasks easier. If you have used any modern JavaScript tools, particularly node, CommandBox has many of the same functions as NPM. **If you have never used those tools, that is perfectly ok as well.**

While CommandBox has a number of features built in to it, we are going to focus mainly on two of them which are

1. The embedded server
2. The package manager

In order to use your web site truly as it is intended to be used by the rest of the world, it is important to view your site being served from a web server rather than just clicking on FILE —> OPEN in a browser. In order to develop scripted applications, it is essential to have a server to handle the scripting language used. This is comparable to needing a PHP server to process PHP scripts, the Java RunTime Engine to run Java commands and Node server to handle server side Javascript code. CB allows us to solve both of these problems very very easily. In this class, we will be using a scripting language called BoxLang so we will need a BoxLang scripting engine on our local machine.This is very straightforward to do with CommandBox. We are going to install the BoxLang language as well as CommandBox in one step using the Quick Installer. Run the code below in your computer's terminal or commandline. Thorough directions can be found here: [https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation](https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation) but here are the quick highlights.

::: stepper
::: step "Install Java 21"
    Ensure you have all the requirements installed: [https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation#requirements-7](https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation#requirements-7)
:::

::: step "Run the Quick Installer"

!!! tip "IMPORTANT"
    When prompted to install CommandBox, choose ***Yes***

    If / When asked if you want to install folder to the PATH, choose ***Yes***

Install BoxLang and CommandBox [https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation#quick-installer](https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation#quick-installer)
:::
::: step "Test The BoxLang Installation"

After it is complete, open a new terminal window and run ```boxlang --version```

!!! success "If you see something like this it is installed!"
    ```

    Ortus BoxLang? v1.17.3+62
    BoxLang? ID: 044e1785b171e0b4b98b6f9ad185e80e
    Codename: Jericho
    Built On: 2026-09-05 20:49:21
    Copyright Ortus Solutions, Corp?
    https://boxlang.io
:::
::: step "Start Up CommandBox"
    1. From the commandLine run ```box```
    
    If you see the  CommandBox start up screen, it is installed"
    ```
        ______                                          ______
        / ____/___  ____ ___  ____ ___  ____ _____  ____/ / __ )____  _  __
     / /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ `__ \/ __ `/ __ \/ __  / __  / __ \| |/_/
    / /___/ /_/ / / / / / / / / / / / /_/ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ />  <
    \____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/_/ /_/ /_/\__,_/_/ /_/\__,_/_____/\____/_/|_| (R)  v6.4.0-alpha+00889
        
    Welcome to CommandBox!
    CommandBox:sites>
    ```
   
:::
:::