Install & first run

This page covers the local/hosted server path. For the deck box, build the desktop app instead (see Choose your deployment).

Prerequisites

• Python (managed with uv) for the backend.
• Node + pnpm for the web app (the repo is a pnpm workspace).

Run both servers (development)

From the repo root:

pnpm install        # installs the whole workspace, first time only
pnpm run dev        # boots backend + frontend together

Then open the app in your browser. Need sample data? Seed a demo meet and an admin / changeme dev user:

pnpm run seed

Create a real admin account

The first account is created with the user-admin CLI (the create subcommand; you’ll be prompted for the password):

pnpm run user-admin create --username alice

The CLI writes to the database the server is configured for — make sure it runs with the same SWIM_DB_URL/database settings as the server (e.g. the same .env), or the admin lands in the wrong database.

The first administrator can then invite everyone else from the app — see Accounts & access.

Configure before going live

At minimum set the auth secret, the database, and (if you want invite emails) SMTP — see Configuration and Email setup.