Rover install Command

The rover install command enables you to:

• Reinstall or upgrade the Rover binary

• Install officially supported plugins that Rover uses for composition and local development

Install Rover

When you run rover install without the --plugin option, it reinstalls or upgrades the Rover binary. The curl (Linux and macOS) and PowerShell (Windows) install scripts use the same behavior.

1rover install

If Rover is already installed at the same location, Rover prompts you to confirm overwriting. To overwrite without prompting (for example, when using this command in a CI environment), use --force:

1rover install --force

To install Rover for the first time, use the official installation methods.

Install plugins

Use rover install --plugin <name>@<version> to download and install an officially supported plugin. Plugins are installed alongside the Rover binary and are used by commands such as rover dev and supergraph composition.

Supported plugins

Examples

Install the latest supergraph plugin for Federation 2:

1rover install --plugin supergraph@latest-2

Install the latest Router 2.x:

1rover install --plugin router@2

Install a pinned version of the Router (1.x):

1rover install --plugin router@=1.0.0

Install the Apollo MCP Server (used with rover dev for MCP):

1rover install --plugin apollo-mcp-server@latest

Accept the ELv2 license

Some plugins require accepting the ELv2 license. Rover prompts you to accept the license before continuing.

To accept the license without prompting, use the --elv2-license accept flag. This is useful when using this command in a CI environment.

1rover install --plugin supergraph@latest-2 --elv2-license accept

You can also set the environment variable APOLLO_ELV2_LICENSE=accept to accept the license automatically.

1export APOLLO_ELV2_LICENSE=accept
2rover install --plugin router@latest

Options

Other common Rover options (e.g. --log, --format, --client-timeout) also apply. Run rover install --help for the full list.