1. Create the Project

In this chapter you create a new Holo-JS app, choose the packages the blog needs, and start the development server.

What you'll build

• a new project called blog
• a SQLite database file for local development
• the folders you'll edit in the rest of the tutorial
• a running development server

Step 1: Create the app

Run the project creator:

npm create holo-js@latest blog

To use pnpm, Yarn, or Bun instead, see Installation.

The creator asks a few questions. Answer them like this:

Question	Answer
Framework	next, nuxt, or sveltekit — your choice
Database driver	sqlite
Package manager	npm
Optional packages	select all of them
Default storage disk	local

The optional packages are storage, events, queue, validation, forms, auth, authorization, notifications, mail, broadcast, realtime, security, and cache. The blog uses every one of them by the end of the tutorial. You'll add image support (media) later, in chapter 9.

Skip the questions

You can pass every answer as a flag instead. Replace next with nuxt or sveltekit if needed:

npm create holo-js@latest blog -- --framework next --database sqlite --package-manager npm --storage-default-disk local --package storage,events,queue,validation,forms,auth,authorization,notifications,mail,broadcast,realtime,security,cache

The creator writes the project files and installs dependencies. When it finishes, it prints the next steps.

Step 2: Start the development server

cd blog
npm run dev

The dev script runs holo dev. It prepares Holo's generated files, then starts your framework's own dev server.

Open the URL printed in the terminal. By default that's http://localhost:3000 for Next.js and Nuxt, and http://localhost:5173 for SvelteKit. You should see the starter page.

Step 3: Look around the project

Your framework's usual folders are still there (app/ for Next.js and Nuxt, src/ for SvelteKit). Holo adds these:

Folder	What goes in it
config/	One file per feature: app.ts, database.ts, auth.ts, storage.ts, queue.ts, and so on
server/models/	Models. The creator already made User.ts for you
server/db/migrations/	Migrations. The auth and notifications tables are already here
server/db/seeders/	Seeders that fill the database with sample data
server/policies/	Authorization policies
server/events/, server/listeners/	Events and the listeners that react to them
server/jobs/	Queued jobs
server/broadcast/, server/channels/	Broadcast events and channels for live updates
server/realtime/	Realtime queries and mutations
server/notifications/	Notifications, including the auth emails
storage/	The SQLite database, uploaded files, sessions, and other local data
.env	Local settings such as APP_URL and DB_URL

Holo also keeps a .holo-js/generated/ folder. Holo regenerates this folder; don't edit it.

Step 4: Check it works

1. The browser shows the starter page with no errors in the terminal.

2. In a second terminal, inside the blog folder, list the Holo commands:

   npx holo list

   You should see commands such as migrate, make:model, seed, and queue:work.

3. Open .env and check that DB_URL is set to ./storage/database.sqlite. That's where your data will live.

Leave the dev server running for the rest of the tutorial. Holo notices new models, migrations, and policies while it runs.

Next steps

Next, create the blog's tables in Database and Migrations.

For more detail on what you just did:

• Installation
• Project Structure
• Configuration
• CLI Commands