Skip to main content
Documentation menu

Getting Started

Learn how to set up and run your MinuteShip website in minutes

This guide will walk you through setting up MinuteShip.

Prerequisites

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

Git

Git is a version control system that is used to track changes in any file.

If Git is not installed, download it from the Git official website.

# Check if Git is installed
git --version

Node.js

Node.js is a runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code.

If Node.js is not installed, download it from the Node.js official website.

# Check if Node.js is installed
node --version

PNPM

Package manager is a tool that is used to manage dependencies in your project. We recommend using pnpm.

# Install pnpm if you haven't already
npm install -g pnpm

# Other platforms please follow the installation docs: https://pnpm.io/installation

# Check pnpm version
pnpm --version

GitHub CLI

GitHub CLI (gh) is used to sync secrets to GitHub for automated deployments via GitHub Actions. Install it and log in:

# Install gh (macOS)
brew install gh

# Other platforms please follow the installation docs: https://github.com/cli/cli#installation

# Check if gh is installed
gh --version

# Log in to GitHub
gh auth login

# Check account status
gh auth status

Quick Setup

Create your project

Clone the template repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/minuteship/minuteship.git your-project-name

cd your-project-name

Remove the original remote connection to the template repository and create a private GitHub repository for your project:

# Remove the original remote
git remote remove origin

# Create a private repository on GitHub and set it as the remote
gh repo create your-project-name --private --source=. --remote=origin

# Push the code to your new repository and set the default branch to main
git push -u origin main

This command creates a private GitHub repository, sets it as the origin remote, and pushes the code.

Install dependencies

Install the dependencies by running the following command:

pnpm install

Set up environment variables

Copy the .env.example file to .env as a starting point.

cp .env.example .env

Open the environment file and set the variables to your desired values. You can find more information about the environment variables in the Environment Configuration guide.

Start the development server

Now that you have the environment variables set up, you can start the development server by running the following command:

pnpm run dev

This will start the development server on http://localhost:3000 and you can access the template website.

Next Steps

Now that you have MinuteShip running, here are some next steps: