Installation

Three tools have to exist on your machine before anything else works: Node, pnpm, and Docker. After that it is one command, and the CLI does the rest.

For the rest of the setup surface, see Commands (scripts), Onboarding (pack env walkthrough), and Env variables (full catalog).

Prerequisites

The CLI checks the first two before it touches anything and stops with the fix when one is missing. Docker is only recommended: without it you skip the local databases and point DATABASE_URL at your own.

Node.js

Check what you have:

node --version

If it prints anything below v20, install a current version. On macOS and Linux the least painful route is a version manager, because you will want to switch versions eventually:

# macOS / Linux
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
nvm install 22
nvm use 22

On Windows, install from nodejs.org or use nvm-windows.

pnpm

pnpm 12 ships as a native binary, and older tooling trips over that. The shortest path is npm:

npm install -g pnpm@12
pnpm --version

If you manage pnpm through Corepack, update Corepack first, because a Corepack that predates pnpm 11 looks for a file the package no longer ships:

npm install -g corepack@latest
corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@12 --activate

Docker

Install Docker Desktop on macOS or Windows, or Docker Engine on Linux. Start it and confirm the daemon is up:

docker info

Docker only runs Postgres, Valkey, and RustFS (S3-compatible storage) for local development. If you already have a Postgres you want to use, skip the Docker step when the CLI offers it and point DATABASE_URL at yours instead.

Create the project

npx @hype-stack/cli create my-app

The CLI asks which AI assistants your team uses and writes the agent rules in each tool's own format. Tick as many as you need. Pass --editor cursor,claude,codex to skip the question; the valid values are cursor, t3code, claude, codex, copilot, opencode, and windsurf. Then it asks for a color theme and corner radius for the frontend, and whether the admin, mobile, and extension apps should copy those settings.

After the prompts, create does the whole first run for you:

1. Clones the template at its latest release and strips its git history.
2. Renames the workspace scope to your project name and writes stack.json.
3. Writes the editor rules you picked, wires the MCP server into the project config where the editor supports it, and pulls a starter set of agent skills from skills.sh.
4. Runs pnpm install.
5. Makes the first git commit.
6. Copies every .env.example to .env. The defaults point at the Docker containers, so the app boots as-is.
7. Asks whether to start Docker and run migrations. Say yes and it runs docker compose up -d in apps/backend, remaps any busy port, waits for Postgres, runs prisma migrate dev to create the tables, and mirrors the schema into the isolated test database so pnpm test works right away.

Every answer has a flag. --no-setup skips step 7, --no-skills skips the skills, --no-install skips pnpm install (and therefore step 7 too), and --yes with a name skips every confirmation. See Create a Project for the full list.

If you said no to Docker and migrations

Nothing is lost. Run the same steps yourself whenever you are ready:

cd my-app/apps/backend
docker compose up -d
docker compose ps

The compose file lives in apps/backend, not at the repo root. It starts Postgres, Valkey, and RustFS on ports scoped to this project, so several Hype Stack projects can run side by side without colliding.

Then, from the repo root, create the tables and generate the Prisma client that Kysely types its queries against:

pnpm --filter @hype-stack/backend migration:create

Start everything

cd my-app
pnpm dev

Everything runs with hot reload. pnpm dev starts Metro for apps/mobile too. To open the app on a phone you need Expo Go from sign.expo.dev, not the App Store. See Mobile.

For the Electron desktop build instead of the browser:

pnpm --filter @hype-stack/frontend start:app

Same codebase, native window.

Verify

Before you move on, confirm the stack is actually healthy:

1. Open the frontend at http://localhost:4200 and confirm it loads.
2. Hit the backend health check: curl http://localhost:3000/ping (or open it in a browser).
3. Run a typecheck from the repo root:

pnpm typecheck

If those three pass, the workspace is wired correctly.

Related setup pages

When it does not work

docker compose up fails with a port already in use. The CLI remaps busy ports when it runs Docker for you. If you ran it by hand, something else is on the Postgres, Valkey, or RustFS port. Either stop it, or change the host port in apps/backend/docker-compose.yml, then update DATABASE_URL and VALKEY_URL to match.

Migrations fail to connect. The containers are probably still starting. Run docker compose ps in apps/backend and wait for the health check, then try again.

Types are wrong after a schema change. The Prisma client is generated, not written. Re-run the migrate command, which regenerates it, or pnpm --filter @hype-stack/backend generate.

pnpm dev starts but the frontend cannot reach the API. Check that apps/frontend/.env exists. Without it the frontend has no API URL and every request fails.

Next

• Fastest Template to start from a finished app instead of the bare starter.
• Compose Your Stack to add auth, billing, or notifications.
• Mobile to run the Expo app on a phone or simulator.
• Commands for everything pnpm dev is doing under the hood.
• Going to production when you are ready to ship.