Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ — node -v to check
• pnpm — pnpm i -g pnpm
• Git

1. Create your project

pnpm dlx create-saas-app

The CLI walks you through a short setup:

┌  Launch.now│◇  Project name│  my-app│◇  SaaS model│  ● B2B — multi-tenant (organisations & workspaces)  [default]│  ○ B2C — single-tenant (user-owned resources)│◇  Advanced auth features (multi-select)│  ◼ Two-factor authentication (TOTP + OTP)│  ◼ Passkeys (WebAuthn)│  ◻ Magic link│◇  Initialize a git repository?│  Yes│◇  Install dependencies?│  Yes│└  Done! cd my-app && pnpm dev

2. Configure environment variables

cp .env.example .env.local

cp .env.example .env.local

Open .env.local. The variables are grouped by service — you do not need all of them to start. Here is the minimum to get the app running locally:

# AppNEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3000# Auth — generate with: openssl rand -base64 32BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=# Database — local Postgres or a free cloud instance (Neon / Supabase)DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:password@localhost:5432/myapp

For the full list of variables with instructions for each service, see Environment Variables.

3. Set up the database

pnpm db:migrate

This runs the consolidated migration and creates all tables — including Better Auth session tables.

4. Start the development server

pnpm dev

The app is running at http://localhost:3000.

What works out of the box

Once the server is up, the following work with only the minimum env vars above:

• Email/password authentication
• Session management
• Two-factor authentication (if selected at init)
• Passkeys (if selected at init)
• Organisation creation and member management (B2B mode)

The following require additional service configuration:

Start with what you need — every section is independent.