Venelx Docs
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Getting Started

From zero to your first build in five steps.

1. Create your account

Sign up at app.venelx.com. If email verification is enabled for your deployment, confirm the link in your inbox before continuing.

2. Connect GitHub

In the dashboard, go to Account → GitHub (or the banner prompting you to connect) and click Connect GitHub. Venelx uses a GitHub App OAuth flow — you authorize the app and pick which repositories Venelx can see.

You don't need to manage tokens: Venelx renews expiring GitHub credentials automatically. Read the full story in GitHub connection.

3. Create a project

Projects → New Project, then:

  1. Pick a repository from your connected GitHub account.
  2. Choose the platforms to build: iOS, Android, and/or web targets.
  3. Set per-project environment variables (API URLs, EXPO_PUBLIC_*, and optionally a project-level GITHUB_TOKEN — see credential priority).

4. Configure signing (production builds only)

Preview builds run unsigned. For store-ready artifacts, set up signing once per platform:

  • iOS — save an App Store Connect API key and Venelx auto-provisions the certificate, provisioning profile, and .p12 at build time. See iOS signing.
  • Android — upload your keystore with its alias and passwords. See Android signing.

5. Run your first build

From the project page, click Build and pick a platform (e.g. ios-production or android-production). You can watch the build live:

  • Logs stream in real time into the dashboard log viewer.
  • When the build finishes, the artifact (.ipa, .aab/.apk, …) appears under Builds → Artifacts for download.

Builds run on build workers. If you don't have your own worker online, Venelx shared workers pick up the job (hybrid fallback, on by default). To run builds on your own hardware — required for full control and faster queues — see self-hosted workers.

You can also trigger builds from an AI assistant with the MCP server (trigger_build), or over HTTP with an API token.

Local development (contributors)

Working on Venelx itself? The monorepo runs locally in three processes:

bash
./scripts/bootstrap-env.sh all
# Edit venelx-backend/.env and venelx-worker/.env

cd venelx-backend && npm ci && npx prisma generate && npx prisma db push
cd ../venelx-worker && npm ci && npx prisma generate
cd ../venelx-frontend && npm ci

./scripts/dev-split.sh   # prints the three-terminal commands

One rule that matters even in dev: the API process runs with RUN_QUEUE_WORKER=false and workers with RUN_QUEUE_WORKER=true — never consume the build queue on the API in production. See Self-hosting overview for the production topology.

← IntroductionSelf-Hosting →