Requirements
what you need, and what is optional.
Kiln is one Node.js program with its own SQLite files. You need a machine that runs Node.js; every outside service is optional and uses your own account.
01Required
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Node.js 22.12 or newer with npm | Check with node -v. Get it from nodejs.org or your system's package manager. Or use Docker (a Dockerfile is included). |
| A machine to run it on | A Linux VPS (Ubuntu, Debian or similar) is the usual choice. Any machine that runs Node.js works, including a Mac. On Windows, use WSL. |
| About 1 GB of memory | And a few GB of disk for the database and images. |
| For production | A domain name and HTTPS in front of Kiln, for example with Caddy. See Hosting sites. |
Kiln needs no separate database server. It creates its SQLite files itself. better-sqlite3 is a native module: on most systems a ready-made binary is downloaded; otherwise the build tools are needed (sudo apt install python3 make g++ on Debian/Ubuntu).
02Optional accounts (your own)
Kiln works without any API key: sites are then built as drafts from the brief, without AI. Each service below is switched on by adding your own key in the console, and each provider bills your own account directly.
| Service | For | Set up on |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter or an OpenAI-compatible endpoint | AI planning, writing, rewriting, chat, blog drafts, translation | AI providers |
| Stripe | Selling plans and credit packs to your clients | Client billing |
| Cloudflare | Publishing sites to your Cloudflare account | Cloudflare |
| Resend | Invite, password reset, review and form e-mails | Operator console → E-mail |
| Pexels | Stock photos | AI providers → Images |
Who pays for what is on the Costs page.
03Tested on
For this documentation, a clean copy of the 1.1.0 source was installed with npm ci, built with npm run build and started with npm start on macOS with Node.js 22.22.2; /healthz answered {"ok":true,"version":"1.1.0"} and the 84 automated tests (npm test) passed. Production use is documented for Linux.