Install Script

The one-line install script (curl -sSL https://appstore.cat/install.sh | sh) bootstraps a complete AppStoreCat development setup on any machine with Docker, git, make, and curl available.

What it does

1. Verifies dependencies (git, docker, make, curl) and that the Docker daemon is running.
2. Verifies Docker Compose v2 plugin is available (docker compose version).
3. Warns if any of ports 7460–7465 are already in use.
4. Clones appstorecat/appstorecat into ./appstorecat (or pulls latest if directory exists).
5. Copies .env.development.example → .env if no .env already exists.
6. Runs make setup (builds Docker images, installs PHP/Node deps, generates app key, runs DB migrations).
7. Runs make dev (starts all services in the background).
8. Polls http://localhost:7461 until the web frontend responds (timeout: 120s).
9. Prints next steps (open browser, create account, link Claude Code MCP).

The script is idempotent — re-running it on an existing checkout pulls the latest commits and re-runs make setup without losing data (volumes persist).

What it does NOT do

• Does not require root. Everything runs as the invoking user. Docker socket access is the only privileged operation, and that’s a Docker-level decision (group membership), not the script’s.
• Does not write outside the install directory. No system files, no /etc, no ~/.config.
• Does not modify your shell profile (.bashrc, .zshrc).
• Does not collect telemetry. No phone-home, no analytics ping.
• Does not auto-start on boot. If you want that, see Production deployment.
• Does not configure SSL or a reverse proxy. Local install only — localhost:7461.

Trust but verify

Piping a remote script directly into sh is convenient but worth scrutinizing. Two ways to verify before running:

Read the script first

curl -sSL https://appstore.cat/install.sh | less

The script is ~150 lines of POSIX shell. No obfuscation, no base64 blobs, no inline binaries.

Read the source on GitHub

The script is checked into the repo at web/public/install.sh. The appstore.cat/install.sh URL serves the same file built into the production Docker image — it cannot diverge from the source you can read on GitHub.

Pin a version

The default script always pulls master. To pin a specific release:

git clone --branch v1.2.0 https://github.com/appstorecat/appstorecat.git
cd appstorecat
cp .env.development.example .env
make setup && make dev

This is also the recommended path for production-style installs where you want predictable behavior across machines.

Customization

Two environment variables are honored:

Var	Default	Purpose
APPSTORECAT_REPO_URL	https://github.com/appstorecat/appstorecat.git	Use a fork or mirror
APPSTORECAT_DIR	appstorecat	Install into a different directory name

# Install from a fork into a custom directory
APPSTORECAT_REPO_URL=https://github.com/me/appstorecat-fork.git \
APPSTORECAT_DIR=my-appstorecat \
sh -c "$(curl -sSL https://appstore.cat/install.sh)"

Troubleshooting

”Docker daemon is not running”

Start Docker Desktop (macOS / Windows) or sudo systemctl start docker (Linux).

”Port X is already in use”

The script warns but continues. To resolve, edit .env before re-running make setup and change the relevant *_PORT value, then re-run from inside the install directory:

cd appstorecat
make down
make setup && make dev

make setup fails partway

Almost always one of:

• Out of disk space — check with docker system df. Prune unused images: docker system prune -a.
• Network blocked — composer (Packagist) and npm (registry.npmjs.org) must be reachable.
• Docker daemon stopped during build — restart Docker, then cd appstorecat && make setup.

Inspect logs:

cd appstorecat
docker compose logs

Frontend never responds within timeout

Containers are running but slow to boot on cold caches. Check status:

cd appstorecat
make ps
make logs

If appstorecat-server keeps restarting, the most common cause is the database not being ready when migrations ran. Force a clean retry:

make down
make fresh
make dev

Uninstall

cd appstorecat
make clean        # stops containers and removes volumes (WARNING: deletes your data)
cd ..
rm -rf appstorecat