Create a project

Open your Saavo account page and confirm that Saavo Starter and the currently available template versions appear under "My Products." This page shows the access your account actually has. Use the same account when authorizing the CLI.

The ZIP on the account page is useful when you need to inspect the original release files. For normal project creation, we recommend Saavo CLI. It verifies the download, names the project, and initializes the local environment, making it more convenient than downloading the ZIP manually.

Run the create command

Before running commands, make sure Node.js and npm are installed. See Prerequisites for details.

Open a terminal, navigate to the parent directory where you want to store the project, and run:

npx saavo-cli@latest create my-project

On first use, the CLI opens saavo.dev in your browser. Sign in with the account that has template access, review the authorization request, and allow access.

Return to the terminal after authorization. The CLI continues checking Node.js, npm, and template access. You do not need to copy a token or download URL. If you have not purchased the Saavo Starter template, you will see:

◆  Logged in as saavo (xxx@xxx.com).
│
■  SAAVO CLI FAILED
│  No templates are available for saavo (xxx@xxx.com). The account may not have template access, or no release has been published.

Confirm that you have template access before authorizing the CLI. Without it, you cannot create a project.

Replace my-project with your own project name. Use lowercase English letters, numbers, and hyphens, and avoid a name already used by an existing project.

Choose local initialization

If the download and verification succeed, the terminal asks:

Prepare the project for local development?
Installs dependencies, creates .env, and initializes local databases.

Choose Yes. The CLI then:

• Installs dependencies with npm ci or npm install.
• Calls npm run saavo:init in the template.
• Creates the local .env from example.vars.
• Generates a SAAS_SECRET unique to this project.
• Generates Cloudflare types.
• Generates documentation and blog collections and their types.
• Initializes the local D1 databases and applies migrations.
• Runs doctor to check local settings.

This may take some time. When it finishes, you will see the next steps:

You do not need to copy example.vars manually or execute D1 SQL statements individually. .env already retains Cloudflare's official Turnstile test keys. Unused Stripe, OAuth, notification, and R2 API credentials can remain empty.

If you skipped initialization

The project files are still available. Enter the project directory and run:

npm install
npm run saavo:init

Wait for Local development environment is ready before continuing. Use these commands to recover if initialization fails midway as well. Do not revert to the old manual database creation process.

Next: Run locally.