Kindling

Set up your computer to build with AI in about five minutes, no terminal knowledge required.

Kindling is a cross-platform installer that gets a non-technical person building AI-driven apps in a few minutes, on whatever computer they already have (Mac, Windows, or Linux, and nothing needs to be installed first). It sets up a ready-to-build project, scaffolded with BMad by default (or no framework, if you'd rather bring your own). You run one step, make a few choices in your browser, and Kindling installs and wires everything up for you.

It's open source on purpose: the very first thing Kindling does is run a script on your machine, so you should be able to read exactly what that script does. See SECURITY.md for the security model.

What it looks like

Everything happens in your browser, in plain language. Here's the whole journey:

1. A quick intro to what's about to happen.

2. Name your project and pick your tools (sensible defaults are pre-filled).

3. Kindling installs everything you selected, step by step.

4. A friendly summary of what got set up, and how to start building.

How it works

Three layers, so the scary parts happen where they can be explained:

1. A per-OS bootstrap script (bootstrap/) gets the prerequisites in place. It provisions a pinned Node.js (via nvm on macOS/Linux; on Windows it downloads a pinned, SHA-256-verified portable Node, or reuses an existing Node 20+). On Windows it also provisions a pinned, SHA-256-verified portable Git (MinGit) if Git is missing. It then launches Kindling in the same shell.
   • macOS/Linux: curl -fsSL https://kindling.aiviatic.com/install | bash
   • Windows: download kindling.cmd and double-click it (it fetches and runs setup.ps1 over HTTPS).
2. A temporary localhost server (server/) stands up on 127.0.0.1, serves a friendly browser UI, provisions Git where the bootstrap hasn't already, scaffolds the project, installs your chosen framework (BMad by default, via npx bmad-method install), and installs any agent CLIs you opt into. It exits when the install completes.
3. A browser UI (ui/) walks you through the few choices: project folder and name, tools, and framework. Progress is grouped into system setup and project setup, and it keeps moving even through the ~5-minute macOS developer-tools dialog, so it never looks frozen.

The installer is published to npm as @aiviatic/kindling; the bootstrap's final step is npx @aiviatic/kindling@<pinned-version>.

This repo is the installer (what runs on your machine). The marketing/landing site and its serverless bits are maintained separately.

Try it

If you already have Node 20+, you can run the installer directly:

npx @aiviatic/kindling

Otherwise, get the one-step command for your OS at https://kindling.aiviatic.com/install.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Aiviatic/kindling.git
cd kindling
nvm use && npm install
npm test        # unit suite (Vitest)
npm run build   # tsup (Node payload) + Vite (browser UI)

• TypeScript + ESM throughout; dev/build on the Node in .nvmrc, runtime floor Node 20+.
• React + Vite for the browser UI; tsup bundles the Node side (engine/, server/, cli/).
• Vitest for tests (co-located *.test.ts(x)); CI runs typecheck + lint + test + build on macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu, on Node 20 and 24.

Layout: engine/ (headless install logic), server/ (localhost server + Welcome page), ui/ (React install UI), cli/ + bin/ (the npx entry), bootstrap/ (per-OS entry scripts), scripts/ (dev helpers).

See CONTRIBUTING.md to get started. Windows fixes are especially welcome.

License

MIT © Aiviatic