Installation & Setup

This guide covers installing Flowra, generating a project, and running the dev server.

Requirements

Requirement	Notes
Node.js	18+ (LTS recommended)
Package manager	npm, yarn, or pnpm
Database	MySQL by default (can be changed in config)

Install the CLI

Global install:

npm install -g flowra-cli

Project-local install (recommended for teams and CI):

npm install --save-dev flowra-cli

When installed locally, run commands with npx flowra.

Create a project

flowra create-app my-flowra-app

You can override the default framework version used in package.json:

flowra create-app my-flowra-app --framework-version 1.0.0

Install dependencies and run

cd my-flowra-app
npm install
npm run dev

The dev script uses flowra serve:watch (hot reload). For a production-style run:

npm start

Configure environment variables

Copy the default environment file:

cp .env.example .env

The scaffold includes MySQL defaults. Update these values to match your database:

• DB_MYSQL_HOST_PRIMARY
• DB_MYSQL_PORT_PRIMARY
• DB_DEFAULT_USERNAME
• DB_DEFAULT_PASSWORD
• DB_DEFAULT_DATABASE

If you want to use a different database, update app/Config/Database.js accordingly.

Sanity checks

List available routes and verify database connectivity:

flowra route:list
flowra health:check

Next steps

Continue with Project Structure to understand the scaffold layout, or build your First API.