Getting started

This walks you from nothing to a deployed app. You do not need to know Next.js, Postgres, or anything about security headers — the starter carries those. You need Node 22, pnpm, and about fifteen minutes.

1. Get the code

git clone https://github.com/Falcon305/vibe-starter my-app
cd my-app
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env.local

Set NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=http://localhost:3000 in .env.local. That is the only value the base needs.

pnpm dev

You already have a working site: a themed marketing page, privacy, terms, and cookie pages, a compliant consent banner, and hardened security headers. Everything else is optional.

2. Describe what you are building

Open the project in Claude Code and run:

/vibe-starter

Describe your business in plain English — "a paid newsletter for home bakers", "a booking tool for dog groomers". The skill interviews you, picks the right modules, installs them, and rewrites the legal pages to match the data your app actually collects.

Using another agent (Codex, Cursor)? Point it at AGENTS.md and ask for the same thing — the vibe CLI does the work either way.

3. Or pick modules yourself

pnpm vibe list
pnpm vibe add auth-better-auth dashboard
pnpm install

Each module prints its next steps after installing. The common ones:

Database (db-drizzle-neon): put a Postgres connection string in DATABASE_URL — a free Neon database works, or docker compose up -d for local dev. Then run pnpm db:generate && pnpm db:migrate.
Auth (auth-better-auth): set BETTER_AUTH_SECRET to any long random string (openssl rand -base64 32).
Email (email-resend): a Resend API key and a verified sender.

Every required key is listed in environment.md, and pnpm vibe doctor tells you which ones are still missing.

4. Build features

Run /vibe-build and describe the next feature. The skill writes it to the same standard the base sets: inputs validated with Zod, mutations through server actions, no secrets in client code, CSP intact. Run /vibe-security any time for an audit, and /vibe-legal after your data practices change.

5. Check your work

pnpm run check     # typecheck + lint + format
pnpm test          # unit tests
pnpm vibe doctor   # module conflicts, drift, missing env, leaked secrets

6. Deploy

Import the repo into Vercel, add the env vars from .env.local (with NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL set to your production URL), and deploy. See deployment.md for self-hosting.

Where to go next

The skills — what each slash command does.
CLI reference — every vibe command.
Module catalog — what you can install.
Troubleshooting — when something goes sideways.