Beginner — Getting Started
This guide is written for people who are not full-time developers. It walks you, one step at a time, all the way to the spot where a SaaS screen paints itself onto your machine on top of the Vite dev server. If you get stuck along the way, keep 09-troubleshooting.md open in a side tab and look for the matching symptom.
Who this guide was written for
Section titled “Who this guide was written for”A fair share of the people who pick up this base are not full-time developers, and that shaped the tone — it walks alongside you. There is one assumption underneath it, though.
You have opened a terminal at least once and have written code alongside an AI. Commands get written out one line at a time, but this guide does not teach what a terminal is, what git is, or why Node is needed from the ground up. Those are not the places this manual covers. Keep a free primer in a side tab (a YouTube intro to git and the terminal, MDN’s Node.js docs, Anthropic’s Claude Code quickstart) and lean on it as you go.
Three things are assumed.
- You recognize terminal, git, and Node by name and have a rough sense of what each is for. The guide writes commands out a line at a time on top of that.
- The first run does not need Supabase, Stripe, or any other external service. The first step ends when
pnpm devpaints a Vite screen athttp://localhost:5173. The external services come in at 04-real-backend.md. - The code itself gets written by an AI. Claude Code is what this guide uses. You only need to know what kind of SaaS you want to build.
If a step already feels familiar, skim it. It still pays to glance at each one once, so when something behaves differently than you expected you know where to come back.
If unfamiliar words start piling up step after step, the parts this manual is really about — the safety net for places where the AI slips, the recovery flow, the scenario-driven checks, the RLS and billing guardrails — get harder to reach. Those are the body of this base. If the entry steps keep blocking you, pause and pick up a primer for a session, then come back.
| Step | What you do | Rough time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 01-prerequisites.md | Install Node, git, Docker, a Supabase account, a Stripe account, and Claude Code | 40–60 min the first time |
| 2 02-clone-and-install.md | Get the base and run pnpm install | 5–10 min |
| 3 03-first-run.md | Run /start, then watch the first screen on the Vite dev server | 20–40 min |
| 4 04-real-backend.md (optional) | Connect a Supabase project and apply the first RLS migration | 30 min – 1 hr |
| 5 05-customize-design.md (optional) | Paint your branding and design tone over the base | 15–30 min |
| 6 06-when-ai-gets-stuck.md | Unblock the workflow itself when the AI loops | Only when you need it |
| 7 07-automated-safety-net.md | Understand the safety nets the base runs for you | 10 min |
| 8 08-distribution.md (optional) | Ship to one of Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare Pages | 30 min – 2 hr |
| 9 09-troubleshooting.md | A list of the most common stuck points | Only when you need it |
| 10 10-staying-up-to-date.md (optional) | Pull base updates into your fork | 10–30 min per cycle |
If React Router, Supabase, and Stripe already feel familiar, the Expert manual covers the same base in a shorter pace.
When something goes wrong
Section titled “When something goes wrong”The first place to look is 09-troubleshooting.md. Almost every common first-run stuck point is collected there.
If your symptom is not in the list, copy the error message verbatim into Claude Code and ask “how do I fix this?”. A next thing to try usually comes back.
If that still does not unstick it, open a GitHub issue or post in your team’s Slack. Include three things together:
- Where you got stuck (which file, which command)
- The full error message
- Environment info (operating system, Node version, Docker version)
The first run is always the slowest. Once the environment is in place, the next SaaS you build skips step 1 entirely and the whole flow shortens visibly.
What the manual covers, where the base begins
Section titled “What the manual covers, where the base begins”The list of steps here covers the seats the base looks after for you on its own — the automated safety net, context recovery, scenario-driven validation, the FSD six-layer boundary enforcement, the RLS SSOT, and the licensee update channel. The manual itself is public, free to read alongside you.
The actual base source and the full .claude/ payload (agents, skills, hooks) ship as a Solo 1-seat license with a one-year update channel. Pricing and the payment route get announced both on this page and on the landing once they are settled. When you reach the point in the manual where you start wondering “where does the code with all this automation actually live?”, that is the seat where you take a license and fork.