This guide will walk you through the process of setting up ProStack on your local development environment.

​
Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following tools installed:

  • Node.js (version 18 or higher)
  • Bun (recommended for faster installation and development)
  • PostgreSQL (version 14 or higher)
  • Git

​
Clone the Repository

Start by cloning the ProStack repository to your local machine or using it as a template for your new project.

​
Install Dependencies

ProStack uses Bun for dependency management and as a JavaScript runtime. While npm is supported, we recommend using Bun for the best performance:

# Install Bun if you don't have it
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Install dependencies
bun install

​
Set Up Environment Variables

ProStack requires several environment variables to function correctly. We provide example configuration files to help you get started:

  1. Copy the example environment file:
cp .env.example .env
  1. Open the .env file in your code editor and update the values as needed:
# Basic configuration
NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:password@localhost:5432/prostack"

# Authentication secrets - generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="generated-secret-here"

# API keys for external services
RESEND_API_KEY="re_123456789" # Get from resend.com
OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-123456789" # Get from platform.openai.com

Refer to the Environment Variables section for detailed information about each variable.

​
Database Setup

ProStack uses PostgreSQL as its database. Follow these steps to set up your database:

  1. Install PostgreSQL if you haven’t already:

    • macOS: brew install postgresql@16 && brew services start postgresql@16
    • Ubuntu: sudo apt install postgresql-16
    • Windows: Download installer from postgresql.org

  2. Create a PostgreSQL database:

CREATE DATABASE prostack;

  1. Update the DATABASE_URL in your .env file with your PostgreSQL credentials.

  2. Run the database migrations to create the necessary tables:

bun run db:push

​
Start the Development Server

Once you’ve completed the setup, you can start the development server:

bun run dev

Your ProStack application should now be running at http://localhost:3000.

​
Next Steps

Now that you have ProStack up and running, here are some next steps to consider:

Environment Setup

Learn about advanced configuration options

Local Development

Development workflow and best practices

Authentication

Understand the authentication system

Database Management

Learn how to work with the database

Was this page helpful?