Installation

You need Go, the prea CLI and, if your app stores data, PostgreSQL.

What you'll learn

• What to install before you start
• Two ways to install the CLI
• How to check that everything works

Requirements

What	Version	Why
Go	1.26 or newer	Preá is a Go framework
PostgreSQL	13 or newer	only if your app uses a database

No PostgreSQL on your machine?

Run it in a container. This starts one, with a database for the app and another for its tests:

docker run -d --name postgres -p 5432:5432 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres postgres:17-alpine
docker exec postgres createdb -U postgres todo
docker exec postgres createdb -U postgres todo_test

Install the CLI

Install script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prea-framework/prea/main/install.sh | sh

go install

go install github.com/prea-framework/prea/cmd/prea@latest

The install script runs go install for you and adds Go's bin folder to your PATH in your shell's startup file if it isn't there yet. It works with zsh, bash, fish and sh.

To install a specific version, set PREA_VERSION:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prea-framework/prea/main/install.sh | PREA_VERSION=v0.0.5 sh

Check the installation

prea --help

You should see the list of commands:

COMMANDS:
   new               Create a project: main.go, preas/, config/ with the profiles, tests/ and a health preá
   run               Build and run the project (the main package at the root)
   dev               Run the project and restart it when a .go file, config/ or .env changes (profile dev by default)
   build             Build the project into bin/<name>; go build flags pass through (-o, -trimpath...)
   tests             Run the tests with the tests profile, one package at a time; go test flags and packages pass through (default ./...)
   generate, gen, g  Generate framework code
   migrate           Manage the database migrations (database.migrations in the config)

prea: command not found?

Open a new terminal so the shell reads the updated PATH. If it still fails, add Go's bin folder yourself: export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin".

The framework itself

You don't install the framework separately. Every project created with prea new lists it in its go.mod, and Go downloads it the first time you build.

Next steps

• Create and run your first app