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Zebric Quickstart (5 minutes)

This quick start gets you up and running with a Zebric web application on your local machine.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

You’ll need Node.js 22 or above. Zebric’s CI and published images use Node.js 24.

Install Zebric

Section titled “Install Zebric”
Terminal window
npm install -g @zebric/cli

Create a Blueprint

Section titled “Create a Blueprint”

Create a new file named blueprint.toml:

version = "0.6.0"


[project]
name = "My Blog"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "A simple blog"


[project.runtime]
min_version = "0.6.0"


[auth]
providers = ["email"]
trustedOrigins = ["http://localhost:3000"]


# Define a Post entity with three fields
[entity.Post]
fields = [
  { name = "id", type = "ULID", primary_key = true },
  { name = "title", type = "Text", required = true },
  { name = "body", type = "LongText", required = true },
  { name = "published", type = "Boolean", default = false },
  { name = "createdAt", type = "DateTime", default = "now" }
]
seed = [
  { title = "Welcome to Zebric", body = "This blog runs from a single TOML blueprint. Edit blueprint.toml and the page reloads.", published = true },
  { title = "How seeding works", body = "These sample posts come from the seed array on the Post entity. zebric dev --seed inserts them when the table is empty.", published = true },
  { title = "Write your own", body = "Sign up, visit /posts/new, and publish your first post.", published = false }
]


[entity.Post.access]
read = true
create = "authenticated"
update = "authenticated"
delete = "authenticated"


# Home page — list all posts
[page."/"]
title = "All Posts"
auth = "none"
layout = "list"


[page."/".query.posts]
entity = "Post"
orderBy = { createdAt = "desc" }


# Create-post form
[page."/posts/new"]
title = "New Post"
auth = "required"
layout = "form"


[page."/posts/new".form]
entity = "Post"
method = "create"


[[page."/posts/new".form.fields]]
name = "title"
type = "text"
label = "Title"
required = true


[[page."/posts/new".form.fields]]
name = "body"
type = "textarea"
label = "Body"
rows = 10
required = true


[page."/posts/new".form.onSuccess]
redirect = "/"
message = "Post created!"


# Post detail page
[page."/posts/:id"]
title = "Post Detail"
auth = "none"
layout = "detail"


[page."/posts/:id".query.post]
entity = "Post"
where = { id = "$params.id" }

Start the Dev Server

Section titled “Start the Dev Server”
Terminal window
zebric dev --blueprint blueprint.toml --seed

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. You’ll see:

  • A public list page at / showing all posts, including the three sample posts from seed
  • A public detail page at /posts/:id for each post
  • A protected form at /posts/new for signed-in users

Visit /posts/new. Zebric redirects you to its built-in sign-in page because the form has auth = "required". Select Sign up, create an account, then return to /posts/new and publish your first post. Readers can visit the list and detail pages without signing in.

What Just Happened?

Section titled “What Just Happened?”

Zebric read your TOML blueprint and:

  1. Created a SQLite database with a Post table matching your entity definition
  2. Generated routes for each page (/, /posts/new, /posts/:id)
  3. Rendered server-side HTML using the layout type you specified (list, form, detail)
  4. Wired up CRUD operations so the form creates records and the list queries them
  5. Enabled email/password authentication and server-side sessions through Better Auth
  6. Kept reading public while requiring authentication for every create, update, or delete operation

No code was generated. The runtime interprets the blueprint directly.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”