Server-Side API

NukeBase is a managed service that provides instant provisioning and deployment. Your project structure includes:

• server/database.js: The core database engine
• server/data/: Your database directory (a tree of data.json files joined by $split markers — see Storage & Backups)
• server/files/: The file store — a plain directory tree mirroring the path arrays you address files with
• server/rules.js: Security rules configuration (and query index declarations)
• server/extensions/: Optional auth extensions — password login, easy passwordless email, magic link. Mounted from app.js; see Authentication
• server/app.js: Your application configuration file
• public/: Frontend files (index.html, css, js, etc.)
• public/sdkmod.js: The browser SDK — an engine file, refreshed by nukebase update
• public/sw.js: The service worker — push delivery and the page cache. Also an engine file; never move or edit it
• sys/deploy.js: A stub that forwards to the CLI. The CLI itself is the nukebase npm package (npx --yes nukebase)
• sys/config.json: Deployment configuration: which account owns the project (uid, account), exclude and backup. It holds no sign-in
• node_modules/: Dependencies (auto-generated)
• package.json: NPM package configuration
• package-lock.json: Dependency lock file

Setup and Initialization

Getting started takes one command. Open a terminal — or Claude Code — in an empty folder and run:

npx --yes nukebase start

# What it does, in order:
#   1. signs you in — a browser tab opens, click Confirm once
#      (no account yet? it creates one on the free plan, no card)
#   2. creates the project and puts it online
#   3. downloads it into this folder and runs npm install
#
# Name and size up front if you like:
npx --yes nukebase start myapp 256mb      # sizes: 128mb, 256mb, 512mb, 1gb

Other ways to create a project. From the dashboard, create a project and it downloads as a ZIP (the Download ZIP button fetches it again later); extract it and run npm install inside. Or split the steps in the terminal: npx --yes nukebase login then npx --yes nukebase create myapp 256mb. To connect a folder you already have to an existing project, npx --yes nukebase link <name>.

Day-to-day: develop locally, push to deploy

Nothing is installed globally — npx --yes nukebase fetches the CLI as needed. The --yes matters when an AI agent runs the command for you: without it npx stops to ask "Ok to proceed?", and an agent with a terminal attached waits there forever. Inside the project folder:

node server/database.js      # run the whole thing locally at http://127.0.0.1:3000

npx --yes nukebase push            # upload your changes to the live server and restart it
npx --yes nukebase pull            # download the live server's code to this folder
npx --yes nukebase logs --follow   # stream the live server's output
npx --yes nukebase start           # inside a project: restart it (also resumes a paused one)

# Tired of typing npx? Install once per computer and drop the prefix:
npm i -g nukebase
nukebase push

Any editor works. In VS Code: File → Add Folder to Workspace, pick the project folder, then Terminal → New Terminal and the commands above run from there.

Step 3: Start Developing

Your project structure is ready to use:

• /public: Edit your frontend files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
• /server/app.js: Configure backend logic, domains, and database triggers
• /server/rules.js: Define security rules for data access
• /server/data/: Your real-time database directory (auto-synced)

Basic Server Configuration Structure

Your server/app.js file uses a module export pattern that provides access to all NukeBase APIs:

module.exports = ({
  // Data
  get, set, update, increment, remove, query, data,
  // Files
  getFile, setFile, removeFile, listFiles, fileStat, fileUrlFor, FILES_DIR,
  // Extension points
  addDbTrigger, addFileTrigger, addCallable, addConnectionTrigger,
  // Server
  addDomain, startDB, checkAuth, withBody, hashToken, generateRequestId
}) => {

  const path = require("path");

  const nukebase = addDomain({
    authPath: ["users"],
    host: "127.0.0.1", // optional - defaults to "127.0.0.1"
    port: 3000 // optional - defaults to 3000
  });

  nukebase.app.serveStatic("/*", path.join(__dirname, "../public"),
    (res, req) => { return true; }
  );

  startDB(nukebase);
}

Available Exports

Your app.js module receives the following functions and objects: