---
id: getting_started
title: Getting Started
---

## Requirements

You will need Node.js >= 8.0.0 and a **PostgreSQL** 9.5+ database instance to be able to run Unleash.

When starting Unleash you must specify a database URI (can be set as environment variable DATABASE_URL) which includes a username and password, that have rights to migrate the database.

On startup _Unleash_ will perform necessary migrations if needed.

## Start Unleash

### 1. The simplest way to get started:

```bash
$ npm install unleash-server -g
$ unleash -d postgres://unleash_user:passord@localhost:5432/unleash -p 4242

Unleash started on http://localhost:4242
```

### 2. Or programmatically:

You can also depend on unleash

```js
const unleash = require('unleash-server');

unleash
  .start({
    databaseUrl: 'postgres://unleash_user:passord@localhost:5432/unleash',
    port: 4242,
  })
  .then(unleash => {
    console.log(
      `Unleash started on http://localhost:${unleash.app.get('port')}`,
    );
  });
```

Available unleash options include:

- **databaseUrl** - the postgres database url to connect to. Should include username/password.
- **databaseSchema** - the postgres database schema to use. Defaults to 'public'.
- **port** - which port the unleash-server should bind to. If port is omitted or is 0, the operating system will assign an arbitrary unused port. Will be ignored if pipe is specified.
- **host** - which host the unleash-server should bind to. If host is omitted, the server will accept connections on the unspecified IPv6 address (::) when IPv6 is available, or the unspecified IPv4 address (0.0.0.0) otherwise.
- **pipe** - parameter to identify IPC endpoints. See https://nodejs.org/api/net.html#net_identifying_paths_for_ipc_connections for more details
- **enableLegacyRoutes** (boolean) - allows you to turn on/off support for legacy routes to support older clients. Enabled by default.
- **serverMetrics** (boolean) - use this option to turn on/off prometheus metrics.
- **preHook** (function) - this is a hook if you need to provide any middlewares to express before `unleash` adds any. Express app instance is injected as first argument.
- **preRouterHook** (function) - use this to register custom express middlewares before the `unleash` specific routers are added. This is typically how you would register custom middlewares to handle authentication.
- **secret** (string) - set this when you want to secure unleash. Used to encrypt the user session.
- **adminAuthentication** (string) - use this when implementing custom admin authentication [securing-unleash](./securing-unleash.md). Possible values are:
  - `none` - will disable authentication altogether
  - `unsecure` - (default) will use simple cookie based authentication. UI will require the user to specify an email in order to use unleash.
  - `custom` - use this when you implement your own custom authentication logic.
- **ui** (object) - Set of UI specific overrides. You may set the following keys: `headerBackground`, `environment`, `slogan`.
- **getLogger** (function) - Used to register a [custom log provider](#How do I configure the log output).

### 3. Docker

You can also use the [hosted docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/unleashorg/unleash-server/) to start the Unleash server

```sh
docker run -d -e DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@10.200.221.11:5432/unleash unleashorg/unleash-server
```

## How do I configure the log output?

By default, `unleash` uses [log4js](https://github.com/nomiddlename/log4js-node) to log important information. It is possible to swap out the logger provider (only when using Unleash programmatically). You do this by providing an implementation of the **getLogger** function as This enables filtering of log levels and easy redirection of output streams.

```javascript
function getLogger(name) {
  // do something with the name
  return {
    debug: console.log,
    info: console.log,
    warn: console.log,
    error: console.error,
  };
}
```

The logger interface with its `debug`, `info`, `warn` and `error` methods expects format string support as seen in `debug` or the JavaScript `console` object. Many commonly used logging implementations cover this API, e.g., bunyan, pino or winston.