Quick Start

Create and deploy a ZeroAPI backend in a few minutes.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer.
• pnpm 10 or newer.
• A ZeroAPI Cloud account.

1. Install The CLI

Install the ZeroAPI CLI package globally:

npm install -g zeroapicloud

This installs the zeroapi command:

zeroapi --help

If you do not want a global install, use pnpm zeroapi ... inside a generated project after pnpm install.

2. Create Your Project

Create a backend project:

pnpm create zeroapi myapp
cd myapp
pnpm install

The generated project includes:

zeroapi.config.ts
zeroapi.schema.ts
zeroapi.rules.ts
zeroapi.server.ts
collections/
rules/
queries/
triggers/
crons/

It also installs zeroapicloud locally as a development dependency, so these commands work without a global CLI:

pnpm zeroapi init
pnpm zeroapi dev
pnpm zeroapi deploy

3. Initialize The Project

Link your local folder to a ZeroAPI Cloud project:

zeroapi init

If you did not install the CLI globally:

pnpm zeroapi init

The command creates or logs into your ZeroAPI account, creates or selects a project, writes .project.json, and checks that your definition files exist.

4. Run Locally

Start the local runtime:

zeroapi dev

Or with the local runner:

pnpm zeroapi dev

Open the runtime:

curl http://127.0.0.1:4311/

5. Deploy

Deploy the current backend definition:

zeroapi deploy

Or:

pnpm zeroapi deploy

The CLI validates zeroapi.config.ts, zeroapi.schema.ts, zeroapi.rules.ts, and zeroapi.server.ts, then deploys to the selected environment.

Production runtimes use:

https://myapp.zeroapi.cloud

Non-production environments use:

https://staging--myapp.zeroapi.cloud

6. Explore Your API

Register a runtime user:

curl -X POST https://myapp.zeroapi.cloud/_zeroapi/auth/register \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"demo@example.com","password":"password123","name":"Demo"}'

Create a workspace:

curl -X POST https://myapp.zeroapi.cloud/workspaces \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>" \
  -d '{"name":"Acme","slug":"acme"}'

Run a custom query:

curl "https://myapp.zeroapi.cloud/queries/workspace-summary?workspaceId=<WORKSPACE_ID>" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>" \
  -H "x-workspace-id: <WORKSPACE_ID>"

7. Next Steps

• Edit your collections in collections/.
• Edit access behavior in rules/.
• Add custom runtime behavior in queries/, triggers/, and crons/.
• Deploy with zeroapi deploy or pnpm zeroapi deploy.

Define backend. ZeroAPI runs it.