Prerequisites

This page lists what you need on your machine and in your accounts before you can follow the Quick Start.

The minimum is short: a revenexx account. That lets you sign in to Cockpit and look around, and it's all the CLI needs too — revenexx login opens your browser. It is also the one item with a lead time — during the soft launch an account is granted individually, so start section 2 before you need it. To deploy your first app you also need the CLI, which installs from public npm, Homebrew, or a prebuilt binary; no registry configuration and no token are needed to get it. An API key is needed the moment you call your deployed app from outside the platform — the Quick Start's last two steps do exactly that — and for CI. The rest of the list — Git, Docker, a particular editor — depends on what you're going to build, and you can add them later.

If you're in a hurry, read section 2 and skip the rest until you need them.

1. Node.js 22.12+ (Optional, for npm install)

If you install the CLI via npm, Node.js 22 or higher is required. The Quick Start also runs npm install and npm test inside the scaffolded app, which expect the same version. The devkit that previews an app's Cockpit screens locally needs Node.js 22.12 or newer, because Nuxt 4 and Vite 7 do (as of 2026-10), so start from 22.12 if you plan to use it.

Check your version

node --version
# v22.11.0

Install Node.js

• macOS (Homebrew): brew install node@22
• Linux (Ubuntu/Debian): sudo apt update && sudo apt install nodejs npm
• Windows: Download from nodejs.org

Tip: You can skip this if you install the CLI with Homebrew (brew install revenexx-sdks/cli/revenexx) or download a binary from the release page — neither needs Node.js.

2. revenexx Account (Cockpit Access)

You need a revenexx account and access to Cockpit, the central admin interface.

How you get one depends on where we are in the launch

There are two ways in, and which one you meet is a platform setting rather than something about you. Start at console.revenexx.com/signup and the page tells you which applies — either a short form that creates your instance, or a reservation request.

Reserving a place. The form asks for your name, email, company, and what you plan to build. Submitting it creates no instance and no login — it puts you in the queue. You get a mail when your instance is unlocked, and you sign in from there.

When self-service is open, the same form provisions your instance while you wait:

1. Go to console.revenexx.com/signup
2. Fill in the form
3. Confirm your email — you sign in through ID, our identity service
4. Your Organization and first Tenant are provisioned. Budget about five minutes; the page shows progress per step

What your Tenant contains

Provisioning brings up the services your Tenant runs on: billing, identity, mail and messaging with a transactional template library, a domain, search, the event bus, analytics, media storage, and document generation. The progress panel names each step as it completes.

No apps are installed. A fresh Tenant is a working platform with an empty app list — installing the first one is your first task, not something you inherit. See Quick Start.

Verify access

Log in to app.revenexx.com. You should see:

• Dashboard with your tenant name
• Left sidebar with navigation to Apps, Integrations, Analytics
• Top-right menu for Account, Settings, Logout

If a step failed during provisioning, the dashboard says so rather than looking empty — the pipeline is re-runnable, so contact support instead of signing up a second time.

Cockpit and who grants access

Cockpit, at app.revenexx.com, is the admin interface for a tenant. The guides send you there to create API keys, install apps and check settings. You sign in with your revenexx account.

If your company already has a tenant, you don't sign up. An admin of your organization invites you to the tenant's team, and you get a mail to set up your account. Invited members start with the user role.

An admin is a member with the admin or superadmin role. Only an admin can invite, suspend or remove team members, and only an admin can create, change or delete a sub-tenant (a user can list them). That makes the person who invited you an admin, so they are the one to ask.

What a user can do beyond that is only partly checked. The console API that creates, lists and revokes API keys, and the one that installs and removes apps, check that you belong to the tenant's organization and do not check your role (as of 2026-10). Whether Cockpit hides those buttons from a user, and whether a Marketplace install checks the role, is not verified (as of 2026-10). If a button is missing for you, ask your admin.

Find your tenant slug

The tenant slug names the tenant a request is for. It is lowercase with dashes, such as acme-eu, and every call sends it in the X-Revenexx-Tenant header. The guides write it as <TENANT_SLUG> or $REVENEXX_TENANT.

To find it, sign in with the CLI and list the tenants your account can reach:

revenexx login
revenexx tenants list

The same slug appears in Cockpit's tenant switcher, top left. A misspelt slug is refused with 403 and api key not valid for this tenant, the same answer as a key from another tenant, so check the slug first. See Debug a failed request.

Check and install an app

A guide that asks for "a tenant with the Orders app" means that App must be installed on your tenant, and a fresh tenant has none. Install the apps a guide names from the Marketplace in Cockpit. An App you build yourself is installed by revenexx deploy app, on the tenant the CLI points at (see Publish and install).

To check from the command line, ask for your tenant's API description. It lists only the routes your installed apps serve:

curl -s https://api.revenexx.com/v1/openapi.json \
  -H "X-Revenexx-Api-Key: $REVENEXX_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Revenexx-Tenant: $REVENEXX_TENANT" \
  | grep -o '"/v1/orders[^"]*"' | head -3

No output means the Orders app is not installed. A call to a route of an app that isn't installed answers 404 with no capability matches this route.

Get a test tenant

Try a guide on a tenant where a mistake costs nothing. An admin of your organization (see who grants access) can create a sub-tenant in Cockpit: a playground tenant under your own. It has its own slug, so it needs its own API key. Your plan caps how many you can have, and each one is removed when its lifetime runs out, so keep nothing there that you need later.

3. API Key

You don't need a key to run the CLI at a terminal — revenexx login signs you in through your browser. You do need one to call your app on the public gateway, which is how the Quick Start verifies a deploy, and for automation that has no browser. Creating one takes a minute, so do it now rather than mid-walkthrough.

Create an API key

1. Log in at app.revenexx.com
2. Open Settings (the gear at the bottom of the sidebar) and choose API keys under Developer
3. Select Create API key
4. Choose:
   • Name: CLI Development (or any descriptive name)
   • Scopes: * for a development key, or only the scopes the job needs. A key needs at least one. For the Quick Start's locations app, locations.* covers every route. See Scopes for what a scope can name.
5. Generate the key and copy the token immediately (not shown again)

The menu and button labels follow the Cockpit help and have not been checked against the live Cockpit interface (as of 2026-10); the API keys page uses the same path.

Security: Treat this token like a password. Store it securely, rotate it regularly, and never commit it to git.

Which scope covers which app

A key reaches only what its scopes name; anything else answers 403. Each guide names the scopes it needs. Every App's operations sit under one namespace, so <namespace>.* covers all of that App, writes included:

Platform services use plain names instead, such as io for imports and exports, search, storage and messaging. Reading the event catalog and an App's settings under /v1/settings/apps/… has no documented scope yet (as of 2026-10); a development key with * covers both.

For a production key, name single operations rather than a namespace where the job only reads, such as orders.list and orders.get. The API Explorer lists every operation your tenant serves, and Scopes has the rules.

4. Git (Optional, for version control)

While not required, Git is recommended for version control and deploying apps.

Check if Git is installed

git --version
# git version 2.39.0

Install Git

• macOS: brew install git
• Linux: sudo apt install git
• Windows: Download from git-scm.com

5. Text Editor or IDE (Optional)

Any text editor works, but these provide JSON Schema autocompletion for app files:

• VS Code (recommended)
• JetBrains IDE (IntelliJ, WebStorm, etc.) — JSON schema autocompletion built-in
• Vim / Nano — Works, but no autocompletion

App files (manifest.json, schema.json, etc.) reference JSON schemas that enable IDE validation and autocompletion.

6. (Optional) Docker for Local Function Testing

To test cloud functions locally before deployment, Docker is helpful.

Check if Docker is installed

docker --version
# Docker version 20.10.21

Install Docker

• macOS / Windows: Download Docker Desktop
• Linux: sudo apt install docker.io

Checklist

Before moving on to Quick Start, verify:

• ✓ Node.js 22.12+ installed (only if you install the CLI with npm or preview with the devkit)
• ✓ revenexx account unlocked, Tenant provisioned, and logged into Cockpit
• ✓ API key generated in Cockpit (the Quick Start's verify step needs it)
• ✓ Your tenant slug at hand, and the apps a guide names installed on that tenant
• ✓ Git installed (optional but recommended)

Once everything is set up, you're ready to:

1. Install the CLI
2. Authenticate
3. Create your first App

Let's go! → Quick Start