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This guide gets you from a fresh clone to a running Orbit instance with demo data, using either Docker or a native PHP/Node setup.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must have one of the following:
  • Docker and Docker Compose (recommended — no local PHP or Node install needed), or
  • PHP 8.4+ with Composer, and Node.js with npm, if you’d rather run Orbit natively

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Get started

1

Clone the repository

2

Run the setup target

The Makefile wraps Docker Compose. make setup builds the app and vite images, boots them, and bootstraps .env, the SQLite database file, the app key, and migrations for you.
3

Start the app

The app serves at http://localhost:8000 with Vite HMR on port 5173. Use make dev instead of make up to run in the foreground and watch logs.
4

Seed demo data (optional)

This runs migrate:fresh --seed, giving you demo projects, issues, and users to explore instead of an empty workspace.
make shell opens a shell in the app container, and make tinker opens a Laravel Tinker session — useful for inspecting data without leaving Docker.

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Create your first project

Once Orbit is running:
  1. Register an account at /register. The first account created becomes an admin; everyone who registers after that is a regular member.
  2. Follow the onboarding prompts to create your first project — give it a name, description, and color.
  3. Open the project and create an issue to see the List, Board, and Calendar views in action.
Setup not going smoothly? Check the FAQ for common issues, or open an issue on GitHub.

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Next steps

This guide covers local development. When you’re ready to run Orbit somewhere real, see Configuration and Production deployment.