Getting Started Guide

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

Node.js 18.17 or later
pnpm (Package Manager)
Docker Desktop
Git

Installation Steps

Clone the Repository

git clone [repo-url] cd starShip-developer-kit

Install Dependencies
```
pnpm install
```
Set Up Environment Variables
Copy the provided .env.example file and configure your variables:
```
cp .env.example .env
```
The .env.example file contains all required environment variables with empty values. Fill in the appropriate values according to your setup. Refer to the Environment Configuration page for detailed information about each variable.

Starting the Development Environment

Start Docker Services
```
docker compose up -d
```
Run Database Migrations
```
pnpm run db:migrate
```
Start the Development Server
```
pnpm run dev
```

The application will be available at http://localhost:3000

Environment Configuration

Configure the following in your .env file:

DATABASE_URL - Your database connection string
NEXTAUTH_SECRET - Secret for NextAuth.js
NEXTAUTH_URL - Your application URL
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY - Your Stripe secret key
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET - Your Stripe webhook secret
SMTP_HOST - SMTP server host
SMTP_PORT - SMTP server port
SMTP_USER - SMTP username
SMTP_PASSWORD - SMTP password

Additional Development Tools

Drizzle Studio

To view and manage your database through Drizzle Studio (configure port to use different databases):

npx drizzle-kit studio

For local database access with Drizzle Studio, use the dedicated local studio command:

pnpm db:studio:local

This is especially useful when working with multiple database connections or when troubleshooting database issues.

Project Cleanup and Maintenance

The kit includes a cleanup script to help maintain your development environment and reduce disk usage. This is particularly important as Next.js cache files can grow to over 1GB.

pnpm cleanup

This script performs several maintenance tasks:

Cleans Next.js cache files (reduces disk usage by ~1GB)
Removes temporary Drizzle SQL files
Ensures proper .gitignore entries
Removes log files
Reports on disk usage after cleanup

We recommend running this before committing major changes and whenever you experience unusual behavior in your development environment.

Database Management

Common database commands:

# Generate migrations pnpm run db:generate # Push schema changes pnpm run db:push # Run migrations pnpm run db:migrate

Troubleshooting

If you encounter database connection issues, ensure Docker is running and the database container is up
For authentication issues, verify your NextAuth.js configuration in the .env file
If Stripe integration isn't working, check your API keys and webhook configuration

Next Steps

Ready to start building your SaaS product? Learn how to customize the developer kit and remove features you don't need in our Implementing Your SaaS Product guide.