# Autonomi Quickstart > Install the `ant` CLI, read real data from the network for free, then store data of your own — in about ten minutes. Facts verified 2026-09-06. Reads are free — no account, no API key, no wallet. Adding data is a one-time payment: you pay once, the data stays, and you see the price before you spend anything. Everything up to the quote is free. Prefer to hand this to an agent? The whole flow is one prompt at the end of this file. ## Install the ant CLI The `ant` CLI is the one tool this page uses — it downloads data, uploads data, quotes prices, and manages wallets and nodes. Install it (no `sudo`; the installers are plain scripts you can read first): Linux / macOS: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WithAutonomi/ant-client/main/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin" bash ant --version Windows (PowerShell): irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WithAutonomi/ant-client/main/install.ps1 | iex ant --version `ant --version` should report `ant 0.3.6`. Every release archive carries checksums and post-quantum signatures; the release page shows how to verify them: https://github.com/WithAutonomi/ant-client/releases ## Read data from the network (free) Here is an address on the network to try: ant file download 711c7e20006ff3e0ac6c1f3063286a0c1a3e4c409642e8c526173fa60bb7078a -o lucky.jpg Open `lucky.jpg` — it is a photo of a dog that lives on the network permanently. You just fetched it with no account, no wallet, and no payment. The long hex string is a *content address*: it identifies what the data is, not where it sits. The client looked it up, pulled the encrypted pieces from peers, reassembled them locally, and wrote the file. Reads are free by design. ## Store data of your own (paid, durable) For this part you need the `ant` CLI (above), a small file of your own, and — for the last two steps only — a wallet holding ANT and a little ETH for the fee, on Arbitrum One. The first two steps are free: choose a file and get a price, then decide. ### 1. Choose something worth keeping You are about to pay to store data immutably, so store something useful to you — a photo, a piece of your own writing, a file you want to exist somewhere it cannot be lost or taken down. Keep it small (cost scales with size), and make it your own: the network stores identical content once globally, so bytes it already holds come back as *already paid for* rather than a fresh quote — your own file guarantees you see the real price. Swap `myfile.jpg` for your file's name below. ### 2. Ask the network what it would cost ant file cost myfile.jpg This encrypts the file locally to count its pieces, then asks live nodes for a price. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is paid, no wallet is involved. The price comes back live from the network — the current answer, not one printed here. ### 3. Set up your wallet You pay from a standard Ethereum-style (EVM) wallet holding two things: ANT, the Autonomi network token, which pays for storage, and a little ETH on Arbitrum One, which covers the transaction fee. Starting from zero? The token guide walks through creating a wallet, buying ANT, and adding the network: https://docs.autonomi.com/token — expect first-time wallet setup to take longer than the rest of this page. The CLI reads the wallet's private key from the `SECRET_KEY` environment variable, which the person sets themselves — never pasted into a chat or an agent. Keep that key private; never commit or share it. ### 4. Upload Private by default — the file is encrypted and stored, and its location map is written beside the source as `myfile.datamap`. Keep that datamap file safe: it is the only way to retrieve private data. SECRET_KEY= ant file upload myfile.jpg Public instead — durable and readable by anyone with the address. Only for data you want fully public: SECRET_KEY= ant file upload myfile.jpg --public A public upload returns an address like the one you downloaded from earlier; anyone can retrieve it with no further payment. Expect an upload to take twenty seconds or more even for a small file — the network confirms your data is held across independent peers before it reports success. Autonomi is built for durability, not for interactive round-trips. ### 5. Get it back Private, from the datamap created during upload: ant file download --datamap myfile.jpg.datamap -o proof-private.jpg Public, with the address your upload returned: ant file download
-o proof.jpg Compare the result with the file you started with. That is the round trip: data read from and written to a serverless network, with one tool, in one sitting. ## Where next - Only need to read? `antget` is a read-only downloader with no wallet code in it — one install line, one command: https://github.com/WithAutonomi/antget - The rest of the CLI — chunks, wallet, nodes: https://docs.autonomi.com/developers/cli/command-reference - Build an app — SDKs over the local `antd` daemon, the CLI, or MCP: https://docs.autonomi.com/developers - Give your agent Autonomi — the Skill, CLI and MCP server: https://developers.autonomi.com/agents.md ## Hand the whole flow to an agent You're going to help me try the Autonomi data network hands-on: one free download, then a paid private upload of a file I choose — with my explicit approval before anything that costs money or needs permissions. Tell me your plan first, and which step you're on as you go. 1. Install the `ant` CLI using the installer at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WithAutonomi/ant-client/main/install.sh (Windows: install.ps1 from the same path). You may fetch and read the script before running it; it installs a single binary plus bootstrap configuration and never uses sudo. Confirm `ant --version` reports 0.3.6. 2. Learn the tool from itself. Read `ant --help` and `ant file --help`, and use only the commands and flags they document — do not guess Autonomi-specific details. The full reference is at https://docs.autonomi.com/developers/cli/command-reference if you need it. 3. Download. Run `ant file download 711c7e20006ff3e0ac6c1f3063286a0c1a3e4c409642e8c526173fa60bb7078a -o lucky.jpg`, confirm the result is a valid JPEG, and show me what you got. This is a free public read: no account, no wallet, no payment. 4. Ask me to choose a small file of my own to store permanently. Don't pick one yourself. 5. Quote it with the verified `ant file cost ` template — free, no wallet — and show me the price in ANT plus estimated gas. Stop here until I approve. 6. Payment, safely. Uploads are paid in ANT plus ETH gas on Arbitrum One. If I need to set up or fund a wallet, walk me through it using the official token guide at https://docs.autonomi.com/token — do not name exchanges, bridges, or token contract addresses from your own knowledge. Never ask for, accept, log, or display my private key. The official upload form uses a command-scoped `SECRET_KEY` assignment before `ant`. This guide's `SECRET_KEY=` template uses Jim's human-readable placeholder for the upstream example key, not upstream copy. Have me replace `` and run the command locally; do not convert it to a persistent export or add undocumented key-handling behavior. The official docs provide no command-scoped PowerShell equivalent, so if I am using PowerShell, state that this upload documentation is not yet available rather than inventing a command. 7. After I've seen the quote and said go, upload privately first with the verified `SECRET_KEY= ant file upload ` template. Explain that the upload creates a local `.datamap` DataMap needed to retrieve the private data, and have me protect that file. 8. Prove the private round trip with the verified `ant file download --datamap .datamap -o ` template, writing the retrieved data to a new path and checking it matches the original byte-for-byte. Report the time and cost. Offer public upload only as a separate optional next action using the verified `SECRET_KEY= ant file upload --public` template; before asking for approval, warn that it is permanent and publicly retrievable by anyone with its address.