Getting started

Create an application, connect PostgreSQL, install the pages and run the whole product against a stub model — before you configure an AI provider.

Requirements

Node 22.14 or newer and pnpm 9
A PostgreSQL database — Neon works well; locally, any Postgres with the pgvector extension

Create the application

Terminal

pnpm dlx @intelligo-dev/cli create my-app

create asks which pages you want — the shell, sign-in, sign-up and the dashboard are ticked to start with — adds the pages they build on, and shows you the commands that install them: pnpm install (shadcn is one of the scaffold’s dev dependencies), then shadcn add for the design-system base and your pages, in the order they need. Nothing runs until you approve. --items chat,billing-settings or --all answers the question up front, --yes approves the commands, and --no-install stops after the scaffold.

create writes a Next.js 16 application with shadcn (base-nova), Tailwind 4 and next-intl already wired, plus the files that make it an Intelligo app:

File	What it is
`lib/intelligo.ts`	The composition root: plans, models, the request context and the execution boundary, bound once
`lib/plans.ts`	Your plans and which features each grants
`instrumentation.ts`	Runs the composition root once per server process
`app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts`	Better-Auth’s handlers, from `@intelligo-dev/next/auth`
`app/api/webhooks/stripe/route.ts`	The Stripe webhook receiver
`intelligo.manifest.json`	A hash of every generated file, so `doctor` and `upgrade --check` know what you changed

Every one of these is yours from the first commit. Intelligo never overwrites them.

Configure the environment

Terminal

cp .env.example .env.local

Two values are required before the app boots:

.env.local

DATABASE_URL=postgres://…
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=…   # any long random string

NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL defaults to http://localhost:3000. Stripe keys, CRON_SECRET and PLATFORM_ADMIN_EMAILS can wait until you need billing, maintenance or the admin console.

Create the tables

Terminal

pnpm db:migrate

This runs intelligo migrate — the framework’s migration chain, selected by content hash and applied in one transaction — and then drizzle-kit migrate for tables you add yourself. Don’t provision with drizzle-kit push: a pushed database has the schema but no migration records, and the migrator refuses it rather than half-applying the chain.

Add pages later

Pages arrive through the registry as source you own. Anything you did not pick at create installs with the shadcn CLI, from the @intelligo registry the scaffold’s components.json already names:

Terminal

pnpm exec shadcn add @intelligo/billing-settings

Some blocks import files another block ships, so the order matters. Installing blocks has the full order, and /blocks shows every block live.

Run it

Terminal

pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000, sign up and start a chat. The chat streams against a built-in stub model, so sign-up, workspaces, team, billing, usage, chat and artifacts all work before you add an API key.

Terminal

pnpm exec intelligo doctor

doctor reports what is still missing: environment, migrations, billing registration, the auth mount, unregistered models, and generated files you have customised.

The boundary — what Intelligo owns and what stays yours
Bring your agent — replace the stub with your model, prompt and tools
Config seams — change what the installed pages show without editing them

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