Strapi Installation and Setup

Strapi Installation and Setup

Strapi is installed as a Node.js application. In development mode, hot reload is available and Content-Type Builder is accessible. In production mode, Content-Type Builder is disabled and configuration is code-only.

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or 20 (LTS)
• npm 6+ / yarn 1.22+ / pnpm 6+
• PostgreSQL / MySQL / SQLite

Installation

npx create-strapi-app@latest my-strapi --dbclient=postgres

# Interactive prompt will ask for:
# Database: postgres
# Host: localhost
# Port: 5432
# Name: strapi_db
# Username: strapi
# Password: ...
# SSL: No (for local development)

cd my-strapi
npm run develop

Configuration

// config/database.js
module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  connection: {
    client: 'postgres',
    connection: {
      connectionString: env('DATABASE_URL'),
      ssl: env.bool('DATABASE_SSL', false)
        ? { rejectUnauthorized: false }
        : false,
    },
    pool: { min: 2, max: 10 },
  },
})

// config/server.js
module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  host: env('HOST', '0.0.0.0'),
  port: env.int('PORT', 1337),
  url: env('PUBLIC_URL', 'http://localhost:1337'),
})

// config/middlewares.js
module.exports = [
  'strapi::logger',
  'strapi::errors',
  {
    name: 'strapi::security',
    config: {
      contentSecurityPolicy: {
        useDefaults: true,
        directives: {
          'img-src': ["'self'", 'data:', 'blob:', 'res.cloudinary.com'],
        },
      },
    },
  },
  { name: 'strapi::cors', config: { origin: [process.env.FRONTEND_URL] } },
  'strapi::poweredBy',
  'strapi::query',
  'strapi::body',
  'strapi::session',
  'strapi::favicon',
  'strapi::public',
]

API Token

# Create via Admin: Settings → API Tokens → Create new API Token
# Type: Read-only / Full access / Custom
# Copy token — shown only once

Frontend .env:

STRAPI_URL=http://localhost:1337
STRAPI_API_TOKEN=your-api-token-here

Production Deployment

# Build
NODE_ENV=production npm run build
NODE_ENV=production npm start

# PM2
pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

// ecosystem.config.js
module.exports = {
  apps: [{
    name: 'strapi',
    script: 'npm',
    args: 'start',
    env: {
      NODE_ENV: 'production',
      DATABASE_URL: 'postgresql://...',
      APP_KEYS: '...',
      API_TOKEN_SALT: '...',
      JWT_SECRET: '...',
    },
  }],
}

Timeline

Installation with PostgreSQL, basic configuration, and first content type takes 2–4 hours.