Icp Cli

This guides Claude through the icp command-line tool for building and deploying Internet Computer applications. It's the successor to dfx, using YAML config instead of JSON and a recipe system for build templates. Use it when you're setting up projects, managing canister lifecycles, or dealing with deployment environments. The skill is heavy on migration gotchas: things like using `-e ic` instead of `--network ic` for mainnet, pinning recipe versions, and understanding that local networks are per-project, not global. It won't help with canister-level patterns like access control or inter-canister calls, just the CLI workflow.

skills.sh installs: 385
GitHub stars: 39
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add dfinity/icskills --skill icp-cli --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

ICP CLI

What This Is

The icp command-line tool builds and deploys applications on the Internet Computer. It replaces the legacy dfx tool with YAML configuration, a recipe system for reusable build templates, and an environment model that separates deployment targets from network connections. Never use dfx — always use icp.

Before generating any icp command not explicitly documented here, run icp --help or icp <subcommand> --help to verify the command and its flags exist. Do not infer flags from dfx equivalents — the CLIs are not flag-compatible.

Installation

npm install -g @icp-sdk/icp-cli @icp-sdk/ic-wasm

ic-wasm is required when using official recipes (@dfinity/rust, @dfinity/motoko, @dfinity/static-site, @dfinity/asset-canister) — they depend on it for optimization and metadata embedding. Requires Node.js >= 22. Also available via Homebrew and shell script installer — see the icp-cli releases.

SKILL.md on GitHub