Install manually

Use this if you prefer Node.js directly on your machine or VPS (no Docker).

1. Install Node.js 20+

Check your version:

node -v

If it is below 20, install a newer Node from nodejs.org or your package manager.

2. Get the project

1. Download NovaDocs from BuiltByBit: https://builtbybit.com/resources/novadocs.120459/
2. Unzip the package on your computer or server
3. Open a terminal in that folder and install dependencies:

cd /path/to/novadocs
npm install

3. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env:

Local testing (SQLite)

DATABASE_URL="file:./dev.db"
AUTH_SECRET="change-me-to-a-long-random-string"
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"
SEED_ADMIN_EMAIL="admin@novadocs.local"
SEED_ADMIN_PASSWORD="admin12345!"

Production (Postgres / Supabase)

1. Create a Postgres database.
2. Copy the connection string into DATABASE_URL.
3. On Supabase, prefer the Transaction pooler URL (port 6543) and add pgbouncer=true, for example:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres.xxxx:PASSWORD@aws-0-….pooler.supabase.com:6543/postgres?pgbouncer=true"

If you use a custom schema (like novadocs), keep ?schema=novadocs in the URL.

Also set:

AUTH_SECRET="long-random-secret"
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="https://your-domain.com"
SEED_ADMIN_EMAIL="you@example.com"
SEED_ADMIN_PASSWORD="strong-password"

4. Create tables and admin user

npm run db:push
npm run db:seed

5. Run in development

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

6. Run in production (VPS)

npm run build
npm run start

Keep it running with pm2, systemd, or similar:

npx pm2 start npm --name novadocs -- start

Put Nginx/Caddy in front for HTTPS.

Deploy on Vercel

1. Put the NovaDocs files in a Git repo (or import the folder in Vercel)
2. Add environment variables (DATABASE_URL, AUTH_SECRET, NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL, …)
3. Use hosted Postgres (not SQLite)
4. Build command is already prisma generate && next build
5. After the first deploy, run seed once from your PC against production:

$env:DATABASE_URL="your-production-url"
npx prisma db push
npm run db:seed

(On Mac/Linux use export DATABASE_URL=... instead of $env:....)