Homestead

Installation ​

Get Homestead running on your machine. You install one CLI, create a project, and start it.

You need Node.js 22.13 or newer. Homestead runs on macOS and Linux (arm64 and x86-64).

This page covers:

Install the CLI ​

Install the homestead command:

bash
npm install -g @rambleraptor/homestead-cli

Check it works:

bash
homestead --help

To skip the global install, run the commands below with npx @rambleraptor/homestead-cli in place of homestead.

Run your first instance ​

Create a project and start it:

bash
homestead init my-home
bash
cd my-home
bash
homestead start

homestead init creates the project files — homestead.config.ts (picks your apps), package.json, and an apps/ folder for your own apps — then installs the dependencies. If homestead start ever runs before they're installed, it installs them first.

homestead start boots the stack on port 3000 and prints a banner:

[homestead] ready
[homestead]   app       http://localhost:3000
[homestead]   engine    http://localhost:3000/api/aep
[homestead]   login     first visit asks you to create the admin account

Open the app URL. The first visit asks you to create the admin account with an email and password.

To edit your site later, change homestead.config.ts. The running instance picks up the change without a reinstall.

Lost your password? Run this from the project directory to set a new one:

bash
homestead admin reset-password

Next: add your own app.

Build from source ​

Build from a checkout if you're working on Homestead itself or want unreleased changes. This path needs Node 22.13+ and Bun.

Clone and install dependencies:

bash
git clone https://github.com/rambleraptor/homestead
bash
cd homestead
bash
make install

Build the launcher and run it:

bash
make homestead
bash
./bin/homestead start

To run the full dev stack (server plus web UI with hot reload) instead of the compiled binary:

bash
make dev

This serves on port 3000, the same as homestead start. It runs bun packages/homestead-cli/src/cli.ts start --dev, which you can also run directly.