Prerequisites

Everything you need installed before you scaffold your first SiteKnock project.

Required tools

SiteKnock is a container-first kit, so your machine needs a modern Node toolchain and a Docker runtime.

Tool	Version	Notes
Node.js	22, 24, or 26 — floors 22.23.4 / 24.22.1 / 26.12.1	Download — the project picks its major via `project.node` in `config/sk-config.jsonc` (default 24); switch an existing project with `sk-project node <major>`
pnpm	10 or newer	`npm install -g pnpm@latest` — Corepack is no longer bundled from Node 25 onward
Docker / OrbStack	Latest	OrbStack is a fast, lightweight option on macOS
Git	Latest	For version control

Scaffolding a project downloads your licensed bundle from the SiteKnock registry. You'll need:

A license token bound to your account or organization.
Network access to the SiteKnock package registry (configured automatically by siteknock create).

You can verify a license at any time:

siteknock verify --token <your-token>

See Licensing & Upgrades for how licenses, versions, and entitlements work.

A code editor with AI agent support (VS Code + Copilot, Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, etc.). SiteKnock ships a two-tier knowledge base so your agent understands the kit and your project. See Knowledge Base Dump.
A Stripe account if you plan to enable billing.
An email provider account (Resend, Mailgun, or SES) for production email. Local development uses Mailpit automatically.

You don't need to install databases or mail servers yourself. pnpm compose:dev:up starts a shared Docker stack that provides:

This is one machine-wide stack — multiple SiteKnock projects can share it safely.

Quickstart

Scaffold and run your first project.

Workspaces & Projects

Learn how the workspace model is organized.

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