Getting Started

There are two ways to get started with Ankurah: using a template or setting up manually.

Starting from a Template

The quickest way to get started is to use our React + Sled template with cargo-generate:

cargo generate https://github.com/ankurah/react-sled-template

This will create a new project with:

A Rust server using the Sled storage backend
A React frontend with TypeScript
WASM bindings pre-configured
WebSocket communication between client and server
Example models and UI components

After generating your project:

cd your-project-name
./dev.sh

This starts watchers for the Rust server, wasm-bindings, and React app. Open your browser to http://localhost:5173. Press Ctrl+C to stop and all watchers will exit cleanly.

Tip: More templates will be added soon for different use cases!

Need help? Join the Ankurah Discord!

Manual Setup

If you want to set up Ankurah from scratch, follow these steps:

Prerequisites

Install Rust:
- rustup.rs
Install Cargo Watch (useful for development workflow):
```
cargo install cargo-watch
```
Install wasm-pack:
- wasm-pack installer
Install Bun (npm/node might work, but Bun is faster):
- Bun installation guide

Server Setup

Start the example server (keep this running):

cargo run -p ankurah-example-server

Or in development mode with auto-reload:

cargo watch -x 'run -p ankurah-example-server'

React Example App

Compile the Wasm Bindings (keep this running):

Navigate to the wasm-bindings example directory:
```
cd examples/wasm-bindings
wasm-pack build --target web --debug
```
Or in development mode with auto-rebuild:
```
cargo watch -s 'wasm-pack build --target web --debug'
```
Run the React Example App (keep this running):
```
cd examples/react-app
bun install
bun dev
```
Test the app:

Load http://localhost:5173/ in one regular browser tab, and one incognito browser tab to see real-time synchronization in action!

Note: You can also use two regular browser tabs, but they share one IndexedDB local storage backend, so incognito mode provides a better test of multi-node synchronization.

Leptos Example App

Install Trunk (build tool used by Leptos):
```
cargo install trunk
```
Run the Leptos Example App (keep this running):
```
cd examples/leptos-app
trunk serve --open
```

Note: For the Leptos app, there is no need to build the Wasm bindings crate separately.

How It Works

In the example setup:

The "server" process is a native Rust process whose node is flagged as "durable", meaning that it attests it will not lose data.
The "client" process is a WASM process that is also durable in some sense, but not to be relied upon to have all data.
The demo server currently uses the Sled backend, but Postgres is also supported, and TiKV support is planned.
WebSocket connections enable real-time bi-directional communication between nodes.

Next Steps

Check out the Examples page for more code samples
Learn about the Architecture to understand how Ankurah works
Read the Glossary to understand key terminology
Join the Discord to ask questions and share your projects!

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