atbridge says it can't find agy / claude / codex — why?

When Thunderbird is launched from its icon it hands atbridge a minimal PATH that can miss the folder your CLI installed into (this is common on Windows). atbridge also checks the usual install locations, but if your CLI is somewhere unusual it can still be missed. Run 'atbridge connect set-cli ' once and atbridge remembers where it is.

Do I have to set an environment variable?

No. 'atbridge connect set-cli ' is the recommended one-time fix and needs no environment variables. Setting ATBRIDGE_CLI_ to the full path still works if you prefer it.

When atbridge can't find your AI CLI

In short: atbridge finds these CLIs for you — on your PATH and in the usual install folders. If yours is installed somewhere unusual and atbridge can’t see it, run atbridge connect set-cli <name> <full path> once and it’s remembered. No environment variables to edit.

This page is about connecting a CLI subscription in the atbridge AI Chat — Claude Code (claude), Antigravity (agy), or OpenAI Codex (codex) — where atbridge runs the CLI you already pay for as the model behind the chat. (If instead your external AI app can’t see atbridge’s tools, that’s the MCP side — see When your AI says it has no atbridge.ai tools.)

Why it happens

When you launch Thunderbird from its icon, the operating system gives it a minimal PATH that often omits the folder your CLI installed into — so a command that works in your terminal is invisible to atbridge. This is most common on Windows, where tools like Antigravity install under …\Programs\<App>\bin rather than a folder on PATH.

atbridge already looks beyond PATH — it checks the common install locations, including IDE-bundled ones like Antigravity’s — and remembers the first place it finds each CLI. The steps below are for the rare case where your CLI lives somewhere it didn’t look.

The fix: point atbridge at it once

Run this in a terminal (or Thunderbird’s built-in terminal), replacing the path with where your CLI actually is:

Windows
macOS / Linux

Find the CLI in a terminal where it works — e.g. for Antigravity’s agy:

(Get-Command agy).Source

Then tell atbridge (use the full path it printed):

atbridge connect set-cli agy "C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\agy\bin\agy.cmd"

(Antigravity’s installer places agy under %LOCALAPPDATA%\agy\bin by default.)

atbridge saves it and uses it from now on. Reconnect the provider in atbridge AI Chat → Connect a CLI subscription.

Find the CLI in a terminal where it works:

which agy   # or: which claude / which codex

Then tell atbridge (write the path out in full — no ~):

atbridge connect set-cli agy /full/path/to/agy

atbridge saves it and uses it from now on. Reconnect the provider in atbridge AI Chat → Connect a CLI subscription.

Before that, the basics

Is the CLI installed and logged in? atbridge runs your CLI with your subscription — install it and sign in once in a normal terminal first.
Did it ever work in a terminal? If agy (or claude/codex) isn’t found in a plain terminal either, fix that install first, then reconnect.

Prefer an environment variable?

atbridge connect set-cli is the recommended fix and needs no environment variables. If you’d rather use one, setting ATBRIDGE_CLI_<NAME> to the full path still works — e.g. ATBRIDGE_CLI_AGY, ATBRIDGE_CLI_CLAUDE, ATBRIDGE_CLI_CODEX.

Still stuck?

Email contact@atbridge.ai with the name of the CLI and where it’s installed. We usually answer within a day.

Where to go next

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