Quickstart

This guide walks you through deploying a local Essal instance, generating an API key, and querying your first resource from the Essal Office app.

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed on your machine
An Essal account at admin.essal.cloud
curl or an HTTP client of your choice

1. Deploy Locally

Pull the official Essal stack and start all services with a single command:

curl -sL https://get.essal.cloud | bash
docker compose up -d

Once running, the platform is accessible at http://localhost:8080. The admin dashboard is available at http://localhost:8080/admin.

The default compose stack starts all six apps (Office, Access, Sales, Careers, Project, Guard) on shared infrastructure. Individual apps can be disabled in essal.config.yml.

2. Create a Workspace

On first launch, Essal prompts you to create a Workspace — the top-level container for all your apps and data. Enter a workspace slug (e.g. acme-corp) and an admin email.

3. Generate an API Key

Open the admin dashboard at http://localhost:8080/admin
Navigate to Settings → Developer → API Keys
Click Create API Key, give it a name like quickstart-key, and select the read:all scope
Copy the key — it will only be shown once

4. Make Your First Request

List all documents in the Office app:

curl -X GET https://api.essal.cloud/v1/office/documents \
  -H "X-API-Key: esk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

A successful response looks like this:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "doc_01HXYZ9ABC",
      "title": "Q3 Strategy Overview",
      "owner_id": "usr_01HXYZ1234",
      "created_at": "2026-06-01T09:00:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-06-15T14:22:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total": 1,
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 20
  }
}

5. What’s Next?

Authentication

Learn about OAuth 2.0 flows and API key scoping.

Environments

Understand sandbox, staging, and production environments.

Platform Concepts

Dive into workspaces, apps, and the shared data model.

API Reference

Browse all endpoints across every app.

Getting Started

Platform Concepts

App Guides — Office

App Guides — Access

App Guides — Sales

App Guides — Careers

App Guides — Project

App Guides — Guard

Integrations

Security & Compliance

Prerequisites

1. Deploy Locally

2. Create a Workspace

3. Generate an API Key

4. Make Your First Request

5. What’s Next?

Authentication

Environments

Platform Concepts

API Reference

​Prerequisites

​1. Deploy Locally

​2. Create a Workspace

​3. Generate an API Key

​4. Make Your First Request

​5. What’s Next?

Authentication

Environments

Platform Concepts

API Reference

Prerequisites

1. Deploy Locally

2. Create a Workspace

3. Generate an API Key

4. Make Your First Request

5. What’s Next?