jspod

Your personal Solid pod, in one command.

Try in 60 seconds

npx jspod

Your browser opens to http://localhost:5444. Click Sign in and use:

| Username | Password | | -------- | -------- | | me | me |

That's it. You have a working Solid pod with a passkey-capable identity provider, a tiny built-in data browser, and a WebID you can point any Solid app at.

jspod binds to localhost by default so the placeholder me / me credentials are reachable only from your local machine.

CLI options

  -p, --port <number>     Port to listen on (default: 5444)
  -h, --host <address>    Host to bind to (default: localhost)
  -r, --root <path>       Data directory (default: ./pod-data)
      --multiuser         Enable multi-user mode (registration enabled)
      --no-auth           Open pod, no IDP, no ACL (demos / dev only)
      --no-open           Don't auto-open the browser on start
      --no-git            Disable JSS's git HTTP backend
      --browser <style>   Data browser: folder (default) or json
      --provision-keys    Generate a Nostr-compatible owner keypair on first start
      --mcp               Enable MCP server at /mcp (agent tool surface; pairs with charlie)
  -v, --version           Print jspod version
      --help              Show help

Install Solid apps

On the first run, jspod auto-installs the default bundle (home, plaza, vellum, plume, chat, timeline, charlie, chrome, explorer). Opt out with --no-bootstrap. On subsequent runs jspod just starts the pod — the bootstrap only triggers when /public/apps/ was empty before this start.

Drop more apps in any time with one command:

jspod install chrome                              # solid-apps/chrome (default registry)
jspod install vellum win98 pdf                    # several at once
jspod install                                     # default bundle (home, plaza, vellum, plume, …)
jspod install JavaScriptSolidServer/git           # any GitHub org/repo
jspod install litecut/litecut.github.io=litecut   # rename the pod path
jspod install solid-apps/chrome#v1                # pin a branch or tag
jspod install --bundle starter                    # curated starter set
jspod install --bundle agentic                    # agent stack (charlie + chat + ...)
jspod install --bundle all                        # every solid-app

Each app lands at /public/apps/<name>/ and is reachable in the browser immediately. jspod install --help for the full spec.

Available bundles

Curated sets, all maintained at solid-apps/bundles:

| Bundle | Apps | Use | |---|---|---| | starter | chrome, vellum, pdf, alarm, chat | Minimal pleasant first-run | | all | every solid-app | Everything in the org | | media | playlist, pdf | Media stack | | productivity | vellum, hub, win98, chat, mindstr, transcribe | Docs + workspace + retro shell + chat + mind mapping + speech-to-text | | agentic | charlie, chat, taskify, vellum, forum, chrome | Run agents on your pod — pairs with --mcp |

You can also point at your own bundle URL:

jspod install --bundle https://my.pod/bundles/dev-stack.jsonld

Run agents

When --mcp is enabled, your pod exposes 16 tools at /mcp (CRUD, ACL, skills, docs, federation) that any MCP-compatible client — Claude Desktop, Cursor, custom bots — can drive. The natural way to use it from a browser is the bundled chat bot:

npx jspod --mcp                  # pod with MCP server enabled
jspod install --bundle agentic   # charlie, chat, taskify, vellum, forum, chrome

Then open http://localhost:5444/public/apps/charlie/, log in via the xlogin button, paste an LLM API key in settings. Charlie reads its persona from <pod>/SKILL.md, uses the pod's /mcp as its tool surface, and chats with you. Edit SKILL.md and the bot's behaviour shifts next session — no retraining, no vendor.

The whole stack — identity, memory, tools, brain — runs on your pod.

The auth ladder

jspod ships you onto the lowest rung that's safe, and the climb is visible:

| Rung | Auth | How to get there | | ---: | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | 0 | None | jspod --no-auth (demos / dev only) | | 1 | me / me | Default. Localhost-only. | | 2 | Your password | Change it in your pod's account settings | | 3 | Passkey | Add a passkey from account settings | | 4 | Hardware key / MFA | Power-user setup |

Override the initial password without going through the UI:

JSS_SINGLE_USER_PASSWORD='your-password' npx jspod

Configuration

| Variable | Effect | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | JSS_SINGLE_USER_PASSWORD | Seed password instead of me (kept out of ps / banner output). | | TOKEN_SECRET | JWT signing secret. Auto-generated at <root>/.token-secret (mode 0600) on first run if unset. Override for operator-managed deployments. | | NODE_ENV | Standard Node env. Defaults to development. |

For LAN-reachable deployments, pass --host 0.0.0.0 (jspod prints a warning to remind you that the rung-1 credentials are now exposed) and either set JSS_SINGLE_USER_PASSWORD or change the password from the pod UI immediately after first sign-in.

The data browser

jspod ships a deliberately minimal data browser — about 800 bytes of JS that JSS loads from a version-pinned jsdelivr URL. It parses the JSON-LD island JSS already embeds in each HTML response, pretty-prints it, and renders every URI as a clickable link.

The source: data-browser.js. The page is the data; the URIs are the navigation. No SPA, no mashlib CDN bundle.

If you want the full mashlib data browser instead, skip jspod and run JSS directly with jss start --mashlib-cdn.

When to use jspod

• ✅ A working personal pod in 60 seconds on your laptop
• ✅ Trying Solid for the first time
• ✅ Local development against a Solid app
• ❌ Hosting pods for multiple users → use JSS directly with --multiuser
• ❌ Production deployments → JSS with operator-managed config

Links

• JavaScriptSolidServer (the substrate)
• Solid project
• Solid spec

License & credits

AGPL-3.0-only — matches JavaScriptSolidServer, on which jspod is built. By Melvin Carvalho and contributors. Issues: GitHub.