Run the Platform

Run a universe yourself: the whole platform, on your machine or a server. You need this to run Agents, use Canvas, and serve interfaces to real clients. If you are building assets to publish to somebody else’s universe, you want Studio instead, which needs Node and nothing else.

How it works

starter is a template repository. You create your own copy on GitHub, and everything you build lives in that copy: your nodes, your components, your Agent skills. The platform itself runs as Docker images that you pull, not source you compile.

A license is required. The starter repository is the scaffold, not the platform. The platform ships as licensed Docker images, and your registry token is what authorizes downloading them. Without a license, nothing runs.

Before you begin

Tool	Version	Install
Docker	24+	https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
Node.js	20+	https://nodejs.org/ or `nvm install 20`
Git	2.x	https://git-scm.com/

Before you start, you need a PostgreSQL database and a Redis instance. Both can be managed services, such as DigitalOcean, Supabase, or AWS RDS, or run locally for development. The platform does not bundle either one: your databases stay under your own management, backups, and policies. PostgreSQL needs the pgvector extension, which managed providers include by default. Local setups are covered in Troubleshooting below. Setup asks for four credentials. One comes from unoverse; the rest are yours.

unoverse provides

Your registry token, issued with your license. It authorizes downloading the platform images and activates your installation.

You provide

Your PostgreSQL connection string, your Redis credentials, and your auth provider’s issuer, client ID, and audience. Any OIDC-compatible provider works: Auth0, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID.

Apple Silicon Macs run everything natively. The platform images are multi-arch (amd64 + arm64); no Rosetta needed.

Set up your editor

Everything you author is validated against a schema as you type. A typo, a missing field, or an unknown primitive is underlined in the editor rather than surfacing later as a build error or a component that renders wrong. This works out of the box for .json files. YAML files need one extension:

Extension	ID	Gives you
YAML	`redhat.vscode-yaml`	Schema validation for node manifests and design definitions

Install it from your editor’s extensions panel by searching for redhat.vscode-yaml, or from the VS Code Marketplace (Open VSX for Cursor and Windsurf).

Without the extension, YAML files get no validation at all. Nothing warns you: they simply stop being checked, and mistakes surface later instead.

You’ll confirm it’s working the first time you author a node (Create Your First Node): delete a required field such as type from its node.yaml and a red underline appears within a second. Undo, and it clears.

Set up the platform

Create your repository

One line: the CLI scaffolds your universe:

Create your universe

npm create unoverse@latest

Choose “A universe”. The wizard asks for your registry access token (from your Unoverse admin) and validates it against the registry before anything downloads: the platform is licensed through that token, so there is nothing to run without it. It then configures the universe end to end: writes your .env, logs into the registry, and sets up the database. There is no separate setup wizard to run afterwards.Most people don’t need this page at all: authoring happens in a Studio project (the wizard’s default, see Studio). The universe kit is for operators running the full platform.

Prefer GitHub?

The kit is also a template repo: on unoverse-platform/starter, Use this template → Create a new repository, then clone your copy. Setup still comes from the CLI: npm install -g unoverse, then unoverse init in the clone runs the same configuration the wizard does (token, .env, database).

Clone before opening the folder in your editor. Opening it first can create a .claude/ directory that blocks the clone.

Start it

Start everything

unoverse start

Starts every service, pulling any platform images that are missing. The universe folder carries no tooling: the unoverse command is the npm package, and it works from anywhere inside the folder.

Verify

Health check

unoverse check

Every line should be green. One command answers the whole question: services up, health endpoints responding, database schema current, and a deeper environment diagnosis if something is off.

Open Canvas

Service	URL	What it is
Canvas	http://localhost:3001	Build, manage, and observe Agents
API	http://localhost:4105	The unoverse engine’s public surface

Studio is separate. It is a tool you install, not a service the platform serves, and it runs on :4108 whether or not a platform is up. See Studio.

How you’ll work

Development is local first. The whole platform runs on your machine in Docker, and it is the same platform that runs in production. The loop:

Build your assets in Studio: components, templates, custom nodes, services, and skills.
Manage content and availability in Spatial: ingest your content and control which assets your Agents can find.
Wire them into Agents in Canvas.
Run and test locally: step through nodes, preview components, talk to your Agent.
Deploy when you’re happy. unoverse deploy runs the Runbooks against your server.

Production only enters at step 5. That is also the only point where the second environment file matters.

The two `.env` files

Your project has two environment files, both at the root and both gitignored:

File	Purpose	Used by
`.env`	Local development	`docker compose` on your machine
Production configuration	Machine-managed	Rendered by your Terraform ground; `unoverse deploy` places it on your server

Each file has a template in the repo: copy it and fill in your values. The production file also names the server to deploy to. At deploy time, unoverse deploy reads it and runs the platform’s Ansible playbooks against that server, following the Runbooks.

Don’t mix them up. .env is local development on your laptop; production configuration comes from your Terraform ground and is never written by hand.

Where your code lives

Not in this repo. This repo operates the universe; everything you author lives in a Studio project: Studio scaffolds it (rx/, prompts/, nodes/ in the project folder), validates it as you work, and publishes it to your universe over the API.

You build	In	Guide
Logic: custom workflow nodes (YAML manifests)	Studio project `nodes/`	Create Your First Node
Design: components, templates, styles	Studio project `rx/`	Components and Templates
Behavior: Agent skills and prompt blocks	Studio project `prompts/`	Create Your First Agent

You don’t have to build everything yourself. The marketplace offers the design system and ready-made nodes and services to install into your universe, per item.

Daily workflow

unoverse start                               # start your day
# edit nodes/, rx/, or prompts/
unoverse build                               # build all + restart
unoverse build @unoverse-platform/my-node    # or build one package
unoverse stop                                # end your day

Every command is documented in the CLI reference.

Troubleshooting

unauthorized when pulling images

Registry login

echo "YOUR_DOCR_TOKEN" | docker login registry.digitalocean.com -u YOUR_DOCR_TOKEN --password-stdin

Services not starting

Check the logs for the failing service:

Service logs

unoverse logs unoverse
unoverse logs canvas

Can't reach database server at 127.0.0.1

Inside a Docker container, localhost refers to the container itself, not your machine. If you run a local Postgres, use Docker’s host alias in your DATABASE_URL:

.env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:password@host.docker.internal:5432/gravity

Not needed for managed databases (DigitalOcean, Supabase, and similar).

extension vector is not available during db-setup

Your local Postgres needs the pgvector extension. Managed databases ship with it pre-installed.

Install pgvector

brew install pgvector                      # Mac
sudo apt install postgresql-16-pgvector    # Ubuntu/Debian (match your PG version)

If you run Postgres in Docker, use the pgvector/pgvector:pg16 image instead of plain postgres. Restart Postgres and re-run unoverse init.

Redis connection refused

For local development, start Redis with Docker:

Local Redis

docker run -d --name unoverse-redis -p 6379:6379 redis:7-alpine

Still stuck

Diagnose

unoverse check

It checks the whole stack and tells you what’s wrong.

Next steps

Build your first Agent

Wire a trigger, a model, and a response together in Canvas, and talk to it.

Explore the CLI

Every command for setup, development, design, and deployment.

Create a component

Design a component in Studio and see it render live.

Start Here

Challenges

Ship It

How it works

Before you begin

unoverse provides

You provide

Set up your editor

Set up the platform

How you’ll work

The two `.env` files

Where your code lives

Daily workflow

Troubleshooting

Next steps

Build your first Agent

Explore the CLI

Create a component

​How it works

​Before you begin

unoverse provides

You provide

​Set up your editor

​Set up the platform

​How you’ll work

​The two .env files

​Where your code lives

​Daily workflow

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Build your first Agent

Explore the CLI

Create a component

How it works

Before you begin

Set up your editor

Set up the platform

How you’ll work

The two `.env` files

Where your code lives

Daily workflow

Troubleshooting

Next steps