Prerequisites
Before you scaffold a project, make sure you have the following.
Required
- Node.js 20 or newer — check with
node -v. - npm — the template’s package manager. (It ships an npm lockfile; other package managers are not tested.)
- A PostgreSQL database — either Docker (a
docker-compose.ymlis included) or a hosted Postgres (Supabase, Neon, Railway, RDS, etc.). - Your StackBlaze licence key — format
sb-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx. The scaffolder verifies it before generating anything.
For local development with Docker
- Docker — to run the bundled Postgres container.
The bundled Postgres listens on host port 5432, which .env.example
already targets. If you already run Postgres on 5432, remap the container with
POSTGRES_PORT=5433 docker compose up -d and point DATABASE_URL at 5433.
Optional (per feature you enable)
You only need these if you turn the matching feature on at scaffold time — or
later in .env.local.
| Feature | What you’ll need |
|---|---|
| Billing | A Stripe account + the Stripe CLI for local webhooks |
| AI chat | An API key for your chosen AI provider (e.g. OpenAI) |
| Agentic tool calling | A Tavily, Exa, or Firecrawl API key for web search |
| Rate limiting | An Upstash Redis database (REST URL + token) |
| Transactional email | A Resend API key (otherwise emails print to the console) |
| OAuth login | A Google and/or GitHub OAuth app |
None of the optional services are needed to boot the app. Auth emails print to the dev console, billing is inert until you add Stripe keys, and rate limiting is a no-op when Upstash is unset. You can add each one later.
Next: Scaffold a project →