Install Sugar#

Before you start#

• Node.js 20.9 or newer and npm.
• Git.
• Authorised access to the private Sugar source repository.
• A writable private directory for persistent data.
• At least one supported provider credential or reachable Local Ollama service.

Obtain an authorised checkout from the maintainer, then run from its root:

npm ci
cp .env.example .env.local

On PowerShell use Copy-Item .env.example .env.local.

Set a final local URL, a long private bootstrap code, an independent auth secret, a persistent data directory and a stable 32-byte credential-encryption key encoded as 64 hexadecimal characters.

Managed providers read their API key from a documented environment variable. Self-hosted providers such as Local Ollama read none: configure their endpoint and credential on the Providers page after the service is running.

Generate the encryption key once:

node -e "console.log(require('node:crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Start Sugar:

npm run dev

The development server binds to loopback on port 3211 by default.

Verify#

Open http://localhost:3211/login. Confirm the service is reachable only from the intended machine, create the owner through the private bootstrap flow, then check /api/health. It can report not ready until a provider lane is configured.

To exercise the whole path without a provider key, run npm run build first and then npm run smoke, or use SMOKE_MODE=dev npm run smoke to skip the build. It starts an isolated Sugar instance and a fake upstream, then walks bootstrap, provider setup, model exposure, key issue, buffered and streamed completions, usage and quota, and exits non-zero at the first failed step. Set SMOKE_PORT and SMOKE_UPSTREAM_PORT above 3050 if those ports are in use.

If it does not work#