Start here

Quickstart

Install dependencies, configure the required services, and start the local app.

Package manager

pnpm 10

Node

24.10+

Checks

lint · typecheck · build

Prerequisites

The project expects a recent Node runtime, pnpm, and credentials for four external services.

Node 24.10 or newer.
pnpm matching the workspace package manager.
A Convex deployment — create one free at convex.dev.
A Clerk application with Google and/or GitHub social sign-in enabled, plus a JWT template named convex pointing to your Convex deployment URL.
An OpenAI API key for embeddings and answer generation.
A Mistral API key for OCR (mistral-ocr-4-0).

Clerk JWT template

Before filling in the env file, go to your Clerk dashboard → JWT Templates and create a template named convex with your Convex deployment URL as the audience. Copy the issuer URL — that is your CLERK_JWT_ISSUER_DOMAIN.

Install and configure

Install

pnpm install
cp .env.example .env.local

Fill in the values in .env.local. Keep server secrets out of public variables unless the name already starts with NEXT_PUBLIC_.

Need the full list?

Every variable is documented on Environment variables, grouped by service.

Run the app

Two terminals

pnpm dev
npx convex dev

Run Convex alongside Next.js

The docs section is fully static, but the dashboard depends on live Convex functions. Run npx convex dev in a second terminal whenever you exercise backend behavior.

Verify your checkout

Repo checks

pnpm format:check
pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm build