Quickstart from source

The adminium CLI bundles the server, the dashboard build, and the meta migrations.

The npm package is @adminiumjs/adminium

When you install from npm, the spec is the scoped one — npx @adminiumjs/adminium — even though the binary it puts on your PATH is called adminium. The unscoped npm name adminium belongs to an unrelated project, so npx adminium installs someone else’s package: never run it.

@adminiumjs/adminium is on the registry as of 0.1.0, so npx @adminiumjs/adminium is the fastest way to start. This page covers running from a source checkout instead — useful for contributing or for pinning to an unreleased commit. Docker is the third path.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer (node -v) and pnpm 10 (corepack enable).
• A database you can reach, or a schema file. Neither is required to start — the wizard will ask.

1. Get the code

git clone https://github.com/MoSofi/Adminium.git
cd Adminium
pnpm install
pnpm build

The CLI entry point is apps/server/dist/cli/index.js. This page and the CLI reference write adminium for brevity — set an alias:

alias adminium="node $PWD/apps/server/dist/cli/index.js"

2. Set a secret

ADMINIUM_SECRET is required. It derives the key that encrypts every stored DSN and API key at rest, so Adminium refuses to start without it and prints a fail-fast table telling you so.

export ADMINIUM_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

Keep this value

Store it exactly as you would a database password. If you lose it, every stored connection string and provider key becomes undecryptable and must be re-entered. If you rotate it, do the same. It must be at least 16 characters.

3. Run the wizard

adminium

Run with no command and Adminium starts the interactive setup wizard. It walks you through:

1. Meta placement — where Adminium’s own adminium_* tables live. Press Enter to accept the embedded SQLite store under your data directory; it will tell you it did. See Where to put the meta store.
2. Source — the engine (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite) and either a full DSN or host/port/user/password/database fields.
3. Test — a live probe reporting latency, server version, and whether your role is read-only.
4. Tables — which tables to include. Blank or all takes everything; otherwise a comma-separated list.
5. Intent — full admin, read-only analytics, CRUD, or support console. This shapes what gets generated.

Then it introspects, generates, and starts the server:

Adminium is running at http://0.0.0.0:4600

Open it, create the first super admin, and you have an admin panel.

The wizard needs a TTY

adminium with no arguments refuses to run non-interactively — there is nothing useful it could do with unanswerable questions. In CI, containers, and systemd, configure through the environment and run adminium start instead.

4. Subsequent starts

Once configured, skip the wizard:

adminium start

start applies any pending meta migrations, then boots. Useful flags:

adminium start --port 8080 --host 127.0.0.1
adminium start --log-level debug

Full flag list: CLI reference.

Non-interactive install

For a scripted or containerized install, set the environment instead of answering questions:

export ADMINIUM_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
export ADMINIUM_META_URL='postgres://adminium:secret@meta-db:5432/adminium_meta'
export ADMINIUM_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/adminium
export PORT=4600

adminium migrate   # apply meta migrations (idempotent)
adminium start

Connections are then added through the Studio UI or the REST API rather than the wizard. Every environment variable: Environment variables.

Where things are stored

What	Where	Override
Adminium’s own tables	The meta store	ADMINIUM_META_URL, or --meta-url
Files, exports, the embedded SQLite meta store	./data	ADMINIUM_DATA_DIR, or --data-dir
The encrypted meta DSN, when you ask the wizard to remember it	<data-dir>/adminium.json	—

The meta DSN cannot live inside the meta store it points at, so when the wizard offers to remember your choice it writes it to adminium.json, AES-256-GCM-encrypted under ADMINIUM_SECRET.

Next

• Connect your first database
• Run with Docker instead
• Self-hosting overview — before you put this in front of a team