Install with npm

The fastest way to try Rounds on a single machine. Good for laptops, evaluation, and small self-hosted setups.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later

Run instantly with npx

No install — every invocation pulls the latest published version:

npx @syntropize/rounds

The first run downloads the package, then starts the API on http://localhost:3000 and the web UI on http://localhost:5173. Open the web URL in your browser; the setup wizard walks you through:

1. Creating the first administrator account
2. Configuring your LLM provider key
3. Adding at least one datasource (Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, etc.)

Install globally

If you'll run Rounds more than once, install it once and call it directly:

npm install -g @syntropize/rounds
rounds

Upgrade with the same command — npm install -g @syntropize/rounds re-fetches the latest.

Configure via environment variables

For unattended setups (CI, headless servers), you can create the first admin without the wizard by setting variables before the first start:

export JWT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
export SECRET_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
export SEED_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com
export SEED_ADMIN_LOGIN=admin
export SEED_ADMIN_PASSWORD='at-least-12-chars'
rounds

The LLM provider, model, and API key are not environment variables — configure them in Settings → LLM after logging in.

See Configuration for the complete environment variable reference.

Where data lives

By default Rounds uses an embedded SQLite database stored in:

• macOS / Linux: ~/.rounds/rounds.db
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.rounds\rounds.db

Override with DATA_DIR=/path/to/dir or SQLITE_PATH=/path/to/rounds.db.

The npm package is intended for a single local Rounds process and defaults to SQLite. If you want npm to use Postgres, set DATABASE_URL before the first start:

export DATABASE_URL='postgresql://rounds:password@localhost:5432/rounds'
rounds

For multi-instance deployments, use Kubernetes and an external Postgres database. See Configuration → Storage settings.

SQLite and Postgres are the supported database backends today. Database selection happens before Rounds starts, not in the setup wizard.

Upgrading

npm install -g @syntropize/rounds@latest
rounds

Rounds runs database migrations automatically on start. Back up rounds.db (or your Postgres database) before a major version bump.

Uninstalling

npm uninstall -g @syntropize/rounds
rm -rf ~/.rounds        # delete the data directory if you want a clean wipe