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Quickstart

This is the operator-facing install + first-run guide for SynapCores Community Edition. For the CE/EE feature boundary, see Community vs Enterprise. For sizing, see Hardware requirements.

Supported platforms

  • Linux: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 12, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Debian 13. Native binaries auto-detected by distro.
  • macOS: 13+ (Intel + Apple Silicon). Native binaries.
  • Other: Use the Docker image — docker run -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/synapcores/community:latest.

Install on Linux

curl -fsSL https://get.synapcores.com | sh

That script does three things: detects your platform, downloads the matching release tarball, verifies its SHA-256, and hands off to the local installer (install-ce.sh) which:

  • creates the synapcores system user
  • lays out /opt/synapcores/{synapcores,aidb_data} and /etc/synapcores/gateway.toml
  • installs a hardened synapcores.service systemd unit (NoNewPrivileges, ProtectSystem=strict, ReadWritePaths scoped to the data dir)
  • enables the service but does not start it (you decide when)

To install the binary only, without touching systemd or system users:

curl -fsSL https://get.synapcores.com | SYNAPCORES_BINARY_ONLY=1 sh

To pin a specific release:

curl -fsSL https://get.synapcores.com | SYNAPCORES_VERSION=v1.0.0 sh

First run

  1. Set a JWT secret (the gateway will not start without one):
sudo systemctl edit synapcores

Add:

[Service]
Environment="AIDB_JWT_SECRET=<paste a 256-bit random string here>"
  1. (Optional) enable TLS by editing /etc/synapcores/gateway.toml:
[server.tls]
enabled  = true
cert_file = "/etc/synapcores/certs/server.crt"
key_file  = "/etc/synapcores/certs/server.key"
  1. Start it:
sudo systemctl start synapcores
sudo systemctl status synapcores
  1. Tail logs:
sudo journalctl -u synapcores -f

The first line you'll see is the edition banner:

Starting SynapCores Community edition (v0.1.0, build 275, git ...)
License loaded: id=lic_community_default tier=Community edition=Community customer=(none)
  1. Sanity check the version:
/opt/synapcores/synapcores --version
# synapcores 0.1.0 Community (build 275, abc1234)
  1. Capture the first-boot admin password. It's printed exactly once to the gateway logs and never shown again:
sudo journalctl -u synapcores -n 200 --no-pager | grep -A 7 "FIRST-BOOT"

Save the password somewhere safe — you'll need it for first login.

  1. Open the Web UI. Point a browser at the gateway's HTTP port:
http://<your-host>:8080/

Or https://<your-host>:8443/ if you enabled TLS in step 2. Log in as admin with the password you just captured. Change it immediately under Settings → Account.

See Web UI for the full feature tour.

  1. Try Filesystem Collections. Point a folder at the gateway and watch CSVs, PDFs, images, and audio get ingested and indexed automatically. See Filesystem Collections for the walkthrough.

  2. Integrate from your app. The full REST contract is published as OpenAPI 3.1 at http://<your-host>:8080/v1/openapi.json and a browsable Swagger UI at /v1/api-docs. Point your codegen tool at the spec or hit the routes directly — see REST API reference for client-generation examples (TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP).

Docker

docker run -d --name synapcores -p 8080:8080 \
           -e AIDB_ACCEPT_LICENSE=1 \
           -e AIDB_JWT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
           -v synapcores-data:/var/lib/synapcores \
           ghcr.io/synapcores/community:latest

AIDB_ACCEPT_LICENSE=1 records consent to the Community Edition License — required under Docker, which has no interactive terminal for the click-through prompt. The image runs as the unprivileged synapcores user, with data persisted to the synapcores-data volume; mount that volume to keep state across upgrades.

Get your login. On first boot SynapCores prints a one-time admin username, password, and API key to the container logs. Read them with:

docker logs synapcores | grep -A 12 FIRST-BOOT

Capture them now — they are shown only once. Then open the web UI at http://localhost:8080 and sign in as admin (change the password on first login).

Upgrading

CE upgrades are in-place: re-run the installer, restart the service. Data on /opt/synapcores/aidb_data (or /var/lib/synapcores in Docker) is portable across CE versions.

curl -fsSL https://get.synapcores.com | sh
sudo systemctl restart synapcores

Migrating CE → Enterprise

  1. Stop the service.
  2. Replace the binary with the Enterprise build.
  3. Drop your signed license file at /etc/synapcores/license.json.
  4. Start the service. The boot banner now reads: Starting SynapCores Enterprise edition ... License loaded: id=lic_<your-license-id> tier=Enterprise ...

Data carries forward unchanged — the storage format is identical between editions. Existing tables, vectors, and dashboards keep working.

Where to ask for help

  • Documentation: https://docs.synapcores.com
  • Community forum: https://community.synapcores.com
  • Issues / bugs: https://github.com/mataluis2k/aidb/issues
  • Enterprise sales: sales@synapcores.com