Quickstarts

This guide walks through installing the CLI, authenticating, linking a project and environment, and launching a process with runtime configuration. A RunEnv project groups an application or service; environments such as development, staging, and production hold separately governed configuration.

1. Install the CLI

The RunEnv CLI is the primary way to interact with the platform from your terminal.

npm install -g runenv-cli

2. Authenticate

Log in to your RunEnv account using the CLI. This will open a browser window for secure OAuth authentication.

runenv login

3. Bootstrap Your Project

Navigate to your project directory and run the guided bootstrap command.

cd my-awesome-app
runenv quickstart --project my-app --env development

This detects your repo/framework, links .runenv.json, chooses a safe local environment, and recommends a RunProfile or dev command. .runenv.json does not contain secrets, only linking and non-secret launch metadata.

4. Run Your Application

Instead of running your standard start command, prefix it with runenv run --.

Node.js

runenv run -- npm start

Python

runenv run -- python manage.py runserver

Go

runenv run -- go run main.go

The CLI will securely fetch your secrets and inject them directly into the process memory of your application.

If your team has saved a RunProfile, you can run it directly:

runenv run --profile "Frontend Dev"

The bootstrap and run flows do not write secret values to .env, .env.local, logs, or .runenv.json.

Next Steps

Now that you've got the basics down, you can explore:

Self-hosted server URL

Hosted clients use the RunEnv service URL by default. For self-hosted deployments, point the CLI, Desktop app, and integrations to your own HTTPS RunEnv origin. See Self-Hosting for deployment and bootstrap requirements.