Installation

Install Release Build

Clace manages TLS cert using LetsEncrypt for prod environments. For dev environment, it is recommended to install mkcert. Clace will automatically create local certs using mkcert if it is present. Install mkcert and run mkcert -install before starting Clace server.

For container based apps, Docker or Podman or Orbstack should be installed and running on the machine. Clace automatically detects the container manager to use.

Clace uses an admin user account as the default authentication for accessing apps. A random password is generated for this account during initial Clace server installation. Note down this password for accessing apps.

To install the latest release build on Linux, OSX or Windows with WSL, run the install script. Note down the password printed. Add the env variables as prompted and then start the service.

curl -sSL https://clace.io/install.sh | sh

On Windows, to install the Clace application, run

powershell -Command "iwr https://clace.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex"

The app is installed under $HOME/clhome by default. Note down the generated password for the admin user. Open a new terminal (to get the updated ENV values) and run

clace server start

to start the Clace server.

To install apps declaratively, run

clace apply --approve github.com/claceio/clace/examples/utils.star all

Open https://localhost:25223 to access the app listing UI. admin is the username and use the password generated by the install script.

To install a bookmark manager app using the CLI, run

clace app create --approve github.com/claceio/apps/utils/bookmarks /book

The bookmark manager app should be available at https://localhost:25223/book.

See start the service for details.

Brew Install

To install using brew, run

brew tap claceio/homebrew-clace
brew install clace
brew services start clace

Install from Source

To install from source

• Ensure that a recent version of Go is available, version 1.21.0 or newer.
• Checkout the Clace repo.
• The below instructions assume you are using $HOME/clhome/clace.toml as the config file and $HOME/clhome as the work directory location.

First add the below env variables to your shell .profile or .bash_profile:

export CL_HOME=$HOME/clhome
export PATH=$CL_HOME/bin/:$PATH

Source the update profile file, like source ~/.bash_profile. Build the Clace binary

# Ensure go is in the $PATH
mkdir -p $CL_HOME/bin
mkdir $HOME/clace_source && cd $HOME/clace_source
git clone -b main https://github.com/claceio/clace && cd clace
go build -o $CL_HOME/bin/clace ./cmd/clace/

Initial Configuration

To use the clace service, you need an initial config file with the service password and a work directory. Create the clace.toml file, and create a randomly generate password for the admin user account

clace password > $CL_HOME/clace.toml

This will print a random password on the screen, note that down as the password to use for accessing the applications.

Start the service

To start the Clace server, run

clace server start

The service logs will be going to $CL_HOME/logs. The service will be started on https://localhost:25223 by default.

Load an App

To create an app, ensure that code is available locally and then run the Clace client

clace app create --dev $HOME/clace_source/clace/examples/disk_usage /disk_usage

To audit and approve the app’s security policies, run

clace app approve /disk_usage

This will create an app at /disk_usage with the example disk_usage app. The disk_usage app allows the user to explore the subfolders which are consuming most disk space.

To access the app, go to https://localhost:25223/disk_usage. Use admin as the username and use the password previously generated.

The code for the disk usage app is in GitHub. app.star is the Starlark config and app.go.html is the html template. The other files are generated files and are created during app development.