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🚧 Documentation is still under construction 🚧

Please send us a message in our community or email us for direct answers to questions. If there are missing pages, or broken links. Don't hesitate to let us know!

Disclaimer

You are expected to know the basics of web development as well as working with Node.js, Next.js, React, and some database and UI design.

The software will get you 90% of the way there, you will still need to perform some manual procedures and Novel will be there to help.

Express Installation

You can install Novel via the following commands and it will get you an almost-ready Novel instance.

1

Run the installation script

Unix / OSX / Powershell
mkdir your-new-project
cd your-new-project
curl -s https://novel.dev/install.sh | bash

If you have access and the right permissions in your system, it'll install everything needed for the project.

2

Run the development server

You can then run the development server.

Unix / OSX / Powershell
novel dev
3

You are ready 🎉

Go to http://localhost:7634 to see the default screens and API.

4

Set up Stripe and Postmark

Novel will run just fine without these settings, but you wont be able to create accounts and send email.

Get your Stripe Keys →

Get your Postmark Keys →

Manual Installation

If at any point the express installation does not work for you, you may refer to the installation.

This assumes you are in a unix environment: Unix / OSX / Powershell

1

Install Git / Homebrew / NVM

You will need to install the package and runtime managers needed by Novel

Install Homebrew

Reference: https://brew.sh

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh

Install NVM

Reference: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#installing-and-updating

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash

Install Git

You can follow the instruction here https://git-scm.com/downloads/mac or run

brew install git
2

Install node.js

Now that NVM is available, you can install the latest version of node easily

nvm install 23

If this is not available, try to close your terminal and open it again. If all else fails, copy below into the terminal

# ONLY IF NVM FAILS TO RUN
export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
3

Accept the Github Organization Invite

Head over to the https://github.com/madewithnovel repository and accept the Invitation.

If you do not see this, please send us a message at [email protected]

4

Clone the Novel codebase

Git should also be available in your machine. Before running this, make sure you have your key exchange is set up with github

You can see this manual if you havent

LogoAdding a new SSH key to your GitHub account - GitHub DocsGitHub Docs

Once you have done this, you can now clone the repository by doing this in your terminal

mkdir [YOUR SAAS DIRECTORY]
cd [YOUR SAAS DIRECTORY]
git clone [email protected]:madewithnovel/novel.git
rm -rf web
git clone [email protected]:madewithnovel/next.js.git web
npm install
mv .env.sample .env

You should have the API and WEB codebase available to you.

5

Set-up your Database

Now you need to set up your database, you have 2 options: Docker or native install.

Install Docker

If you dont have docker available. Install it via this page

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/linux/

Docker Available

If you have docker available, you can run the following command in your terminal

docker run --name novel-db \
            -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
            -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
            -e POSTGRES_DB=novel \
            -p 5433:5433 \
            -d postgres:17

Add the Connection String to the Environment file `.env`

Replace the DB_HOST on line 4 of the new .env file

To the value below

DB_HOST=postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5433/novel
6

Start the Development Server

You should have every part of the system ready. You are now able to run your instance by doing

novel dev

Proceed to the next steps to continue your development.

Next steps

You can go to our guides to start a SaaS speedrun

SaaS Speedrun →

Designing your SaaS →

Creating a Marketing Page →

Creating an Application Screen →

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