Sevro — Open-source low-code backend

1. Start Sevro

The fastest way to run Sevro is with Docker Compose:

git clone https://github.com/jackcaldwell/sevro.git
cd sevro
docker compose up -d

This starts Postgres and the Sevro server on port 8080.

2. Apply migrations and create an API key

# Apply database migrations
docker compose exec sevro /app/sevro migrate

# Create an admin API key (save the token — it's shown once)
docker compose exec sevro /app/sevro bootstrap --name admin --subject admin

You'll see output like:

API key created successfully!
  ID:      abc-123
  Name:    admin
  Subject: admin

  Raw token: sevro_def456...

⚠️  Save this token now — it will never be shown again.

3. Configure the CLI

Install the CLI locally and configure it:

go install sevro/cmd/sevro@latest

sevro config init --server http://localhost:8080 --api-key sevro_def456...

This saves your config to ~/.sevro/config.yml so you don't need to pass --server and --api-key every time.

4. Define a module

Create a file called todo.yaml:

name: todo
entities:
  - ref: todo
    label: Todo
    description: A todo item
    attributes:
      - ref: description
        label: Description
        type: string
        is_required: true
      - ref: completed
        label: Completed
        type: boolean
        default_value: "false"
    methods:
      - ref: new
        label: New
        is_constructor: true
        parameters:
          - ref: description
            label: Description
            type: string
            is_required: true
        actions:
          - target: description
            expression: "params.description"
          - target: completed
            expression: "false"
      - ref: complete
        label: Complete
        conditions:
          - "record.completed == false"
        actions:
          - target: completed
            expression: "true"
      - ref: reopen
        label: Reopen
        conditions:
          - "record.completed == true"
        actions:
          - target: completed
            expression: "false"

Apply it:

sevro module apply -f todo.yaml

Output:

{
  "id": "module-uuid-here",
  "name": "todo",
  "action": "created"
}

5. Create a record

sevro record execute \
  --module <module-id> \
  --entity todo \
  --method new \
  --arg description="Buy groceries"

6. List records

sevro record list --module <module-id> --entity todo

7. Complete a todo

sevro record execute \
  --module <module-id> \
  --entity todo \
  --method complete \
  --record <record-id>

What you've built

In just a few commands, you have:

A running Sevro server with a todo module
An API that enforces your schema (description is required, completed defaults to false)
Business logic that prevents completing an already-completed todo
An audit trail of every change

Next steps

Self-hosting guide — production deployment
Module authoring — full reference for entities, attributes, methods
CEL expressions — conditions, actions, and validation
CLI reference — every command and flag

Quickstart