Setup Wizard

If you start ApiMeld without the SETUP_* environment variables, the app enters setup-wizard mode. All requests are redirected to /setup until setup is complete.

Steps

1. Admin account

Create the initial administrator account. This is the only account that can access Admin settings and invite other users.

• Email address (used to log in)
• Display name
• Password (minimum 8 characters, must include an uppercase letter and a digit)

2. Database

Enter your PostgreSQL connection details. ApiMeld will test the connection before proceeding.

• Host and port
• Database name (must already exist — ApiMeld will create its schema but not the database itself)
• Username and password

3. Email (optional)

Configure SMTP for sending invitation emails and password reset links. You can skip this step and configure it later from Admin → Settings → Email.

4. Apply

ApiMeld runs database migrations, creates the Quartz scheduler schema, seeds default roles, and writes appsettings.Production.json to /app/config.

5. Complete

Setup is done. You're redirected to the login page.

Re-running setup

Setup cannot be re-run once complete. To reset, either:

1. Drop and recreate the database, then restart the container
2. Or update settings directly from Admin → Settings

Automated setup (Docker / CI)

For automated deployments, skip the wizard entirely by providing environment variables:

docker run \
  -e SETUP_DB_HOST=postgres \
  -e SETUP_DB_NAME=apimeld \
  -e SETUP_DB_USERNAME=postgres \
  -e SETUP_DB_PASSWORD=secret \
  -e SETUP_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
  -e SETUP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=SecurePass1 \
  ...

The app detects these variables on startup, runs setup automatically, and is ready to use immediately.