Install Infracost CLI

Install Infracost CLI

Download and install the latest Infracost CLI binary from GitHub releases (infracost/cli).

The binary is called infracost-preview.

Step 1: Check Current Version

If infracost-preview is already on the PATH, check the installed version:

infracost-preview --version

If the command is not found, proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Look Up Latest Release

Query the latest release tag from infracost/cli. Important: The repository also contains plugin releases tagged like infracost-parser-plugin/v0.1.0 or infracost-provider-plugin-aws/v0.1.0 — these must be ignored. Only consider releases with tags matching v* (a plain version tag).

Using gh (preferred):

gh release list --repo infracost/cli --limit 20 --json tagName --jq '[.[] | select(.tagName | test("^v[0-9]"))][0].tagName'

Fallback using curl:

curl -sL \
  https://api.github.com/repos/infracost/cli/releases?per_page=20 \
  | grep '"tag_name"' | sed 's/.*"tag_name": *"//;s/".*//' | grep '^v[0-9]' | head -1

The tag format is v2.0.0. Derive the version number by stripping the v prefix (e.g., 2.0.0).

Step 3: Compare Versions

If infracost-preview is already installed and the installed version matches the latest version, inform the user that it is already up to date and stop.

Step 4: Detect OS and Architecture

OS=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
ARCH=$(uname -m)
case "$ARCH" in
  x86_64) ARCH="amd64" ;;
  aarch64|arm64) ARCH="arm64" ;;
esac

On Windows (where uname may not be available or returns MINGW/MSYS/CYGWIN), set OS=windows. You can also detect Windows via the OS environment variable ($env:OS -eq "Windows_NT" in PowerShell).

Construct the asset filename:

• Linux/macOS: infracost-preview_${VERSION}_${OS}_${ARCH}.tar.gz
• Windows: infracost-preview_${VERSION}_windows_${ARCH}.zip

For example: infracost-preview_2.0.0_darwin_arm64.tar.gz or infracost-preview_2.0.0_windows_amd64.zip

Step 5: Download

Download the release asset to a temporary directory (/tmp on Linux/macOS, $TEMP on Windows).

Determine the asset name using the filename constructed in step 4 (.tar.gz for Linux/macOS, .zip for Windows).

Using gh (preferred):

gh release download "$TAG" \
  --repo infracost/cli \
  --pattern "$ASSET_NAME" \
  --dir /tmp

Fallback using curl:

curl -sL \
  "https://github.com/infracost/cli/releases/download/${TAG}/${ASSET_NAME}" \
  -o "/tmp/${ASSET_NAME}"

Step 6: Extract and Install

Linux/macOS

tar -xzf "/tmp/${ASSET_NAME}" -C /tmp
chmod +x /tmp/infracost-preview
mv /tmp/infracost-preview /usr/local/bin/infracost-preview

If mv fails with a permission error, retry with sudo:

sudo mv /tmp/infracost-preview /usr/local/bin/infracost-preview

Windows

Expand-Archive -Path "$env:TEMP\$ASSET_NAME" -DestinationPath "$env:TEMP\infracost-preview" -Force
Move-Item -Path "$env:TEMP\infracost-preview\infracost-preview.exe" -Destination "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\WindowsApps\infracost-preview.exe" -Force

If WindowsApps is not on the PATH, move the binary to another directory that is on the PATH, or add the chosen directory to the PATH.

Clean up

Remove the downloaded archive:

rm -f "/tmp/${ASSET_NAME}"

Step 7: Verify

Confirm the installation succeeded:

infracost-preview --version

The output should match the version that was just installed.

Error Handling

• Permission denied on /usr/local/bin: Retry the mv with sudo. If that also fails, inform the user they need to grant write access or run with elevated privileges.
• Unsupported platform: If the OS is not linux, darwin, or windows, or the architecture is unsupported, inform the user and point them to the releases page at https://github.com/infracost/cli/releases.
• Network errors: If the download fails, check connectivity and retry once. If it fails again, inform the user.