Skip to content
Truss Docs
Beta — Truss is in public beta. Documentation is actively updated but may not reflect the latest changes. Report issues on GitHub.

Quickstart

Free Trial

New accounts start with a 14-day free trial with full access to all features. No credit card required.

After 14 days, your account automatically downgrades to the Starter plan. Your data is preserved — upgrade anytime to restore full access.

Trial limits: 1 project, 1 GB database, 2 GB storage, 1,000 monthly active users.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 20+
  • PostgreSQL 15+ (local or remote)
  • (Optional) MinIO for storage, Ory Kratos for auth, Ory Keto for authorization

1. Clone and install

Terminal window
# Request access at https://truss.binarysquad.org/#waitlist
git clone <your-repo-url>
cd truss
npm install

2. Configure environment

Copy the example env file for the API:

Terminal window
cp apps/api/.env.example apps/api/.env

Edit apps/api/.env and set your database connection:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/postgres

That’s the only required variable. Auth, storage, and authorization are optional — Truss works with just a Postgres connection.

3. Run migrations

Terminal window
npm run migrate:up

This creates the internal schema used by Truss to manage API keys, saved queries, webhooks, realtime subscriptions, and more.

4. Start development servers

Terminal window
npm run dev

This starts:

  • Dashboard at http://localhost:5173 (Vite dev server)
  • API at http://localhost:8787 (Express with hot reload)

The dashboard proxies /api requests to the backend automatically during development.

5. Create an API key

Open the dashboard and navigate to Settings > API Keys, or use the API directly:

Terminal window
curl -X POST http://localhost:8787/api/keys \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keyType": "service_role", "label": "dev-key"}'

The response includes a secret field — save it. This is the only time the full key is shown.

6. Make your first API call

Terminal window
# Check platform status
curl http://localhost:8787/v1/status \
  -H "apikey: truss_sk_your_key_here"
// JavaScript
const res = await fetch('http://localhost:8787/v1/status', {
  headers: { apikey: 'truss_sk_your_key_here' }
});
const status = await res.json();
console.log(status.database.table_count);

What’s next?