Quickstart

Create a project

npx @kreotic/kreogen@latest init

You are asked for a name and a package manager:

┌  Let's start a kreogen project!
│
◇  What is your project named?
│  my-app
│
◇  Which package manager would you like to use?
│  bun
│
◇  Prepared the project
│
└  Next steps: cd my-app

The CLI clones the template at its latest release tag, then makes it yours:

• Strips the template's own tooling — apps/docs, packages/cli, .gitlab, ci, .claude, the changelog and the release config. None of it belongs to a project built from the template.
• Swaps in your own README.md, NOTICE, .gitlab-ci.yml, CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md, so you do not inherit kreogen's pipeline or kreogen's instructions to coding agents.
• Converts to your package manager if you did not pick bun, rewriting workspace:* ranges and bun-specific scripts and removing bun.lock.
• Seeds .env files from every .env.example.
• Installs dependencies and makes an initial commit, in that order — git first, because the root prepare script runs lefthook install, which fails outside a repository.

It also records where the project came from, in package.json:

"kreogen": { "version": "0.1.3", "repo": "..." }

That stamp is what kreogen update reads later to work out which changes you are missing.

Useful flags: --version <x.y.z> to pin a template version, --skip-install, --disable-git, --scope <scope> to rename the @kreogen/* packages, and -y to accept every default.

Start the infrastructure

cd my-app
bun run docker:up

Whatever docker-compose.yml defines — Postgres, Redis, a mail sink, and S3-compatible object storage if you kept the storage capability. Nothing to sign up for and nothing installed natively. The script names no services on purpose: which ones exist depends on what the project was generated with.

The mail sink is not decoration. Every transactional email in the auth flow is delivered to it when Resend is unconfigured, so sign-up needs it running — see Create an account below.

docker compose up -d --force-recreate

Configure the two required values

Everything else is optional. These two are not.

packages/database/.env already points at the compose Postgres:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://kreogen:kreogen@localhost:5432/kreogen"

Generate a signing secret and put it in apps/app/.env.local:

bunx @better-auth/cli secret

BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="<the generated value>"

It must be at least 32 bytes, and byte-identical across every process that reads sessions.

Apply the schema

bun run migrate

A baseline migration is committed, so this produces a working database on a fresh clone with no extra steps.

Optionally, populate it:

bun run db:seed

Two organizations with members, invitations and a few rows of the stub model — enough that the app lands on a populated screen rather than an empty state.

Run it

bun run dev

Add --filter <app> to run just one: bun dev --filter app.

Create an account

Sign up at localhost:3000/sign-up. An organization is created for you automatically, and the session carries it — every authenticated page depends on that.

Email verification is required before an account can sign in. With no RESEND_TOKEN set the message goes to the Mailpit container instead, so open localhost:8025 and click the link there. See transactional email for how the two transports are chosen.

Add integrations as you need them

Nothing breaks while a key is absent — the corresponding client is undefined and the feature is inactive. See environment variables for the full list, and the CMS setup if the project needs a blog or legal pages.

Before you commit

bun run verify

Lint, typecheck and test — the same thing CI runs.