nylas init — Guided setup wizard for first-time Nylas CLI users

Source: Dev.to

Overview

First time with the Nylas CLI? nylas init is where everything starts.
The command walks you through setting up the Nylas CLI in four steps:

1. Create or log into your Nylas account
2. Select or create an application
3. Generate an API key
4. Sync your connected email accounts

If you already have an API key, pass --api-key to skip the interactive wizard.

nylas init [--api-key KEY] [--region us|eu] [--google|--microsoft|--github]

Interactive guided setup

nylas init

• Step 1: Create account or log in
• Step 2: Select or create application
• Step 3: Generate API key
• Step 4: Sync email accounts

Quick setup with an existing API key

nylas init --api-key nyl_abc123

Quick setup for the EU region

nylas init --api-key nyl_abc123 --region eu

Start with Google SSO

nylas init --google

Environment detection

The wizard detects your environment and chooses the fastest path to a working CLI installation:

• macOS: uses Keychain for credential storage
• Linux: uses Secret Service
• Docker/CI: falls back to encrypted file storage

Help and machine‑readable output

nylas init --help

Add --json for JSON output — useful when piping into jq or feeding data to scripts.

Common issues

• “non-interactive mode requires —api-key”
• SSO browser window doesn’t open
• API key verification fails

Further reading

• Full documentation: nylas init reference — all flags, advanced examples, and troubleshooting
• All commands: Nylas CLI Command Reference
• Get started: brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas (other install methods)