Installation

Core

Every Slingshot app starts here:

bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot hono zod

Installs defineApp(), createServer(), createApp(), the CLI, route discovery, OpenAPI helpers, and the entity/operations authoring tools.

Feature packages

Install only what your app needs:

bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-auth          # accounts, sessions, JWT, MFA, OAuth, passkeys
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-community     # forums, threads, replies, reactions, moderation
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-permissions   # RBAC/ABAC — required when using community or orgs
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-organizations # teams, membership, invite flows
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-search        # full-text search across entities
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-mail          # transactional email
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-push          # push notifications
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-webhooks      # outbound webhook delivery
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-admin         # admin panel surface
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-m2m           # machine-to-machine tokens
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-scim          # SCIM provisioning for enterprise SSO

Building your own domain packages

If you’re building config-driven domain packages with defineEntity() and createEntityPlugin():

bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-entity

Runtime

Slingshot runs on Bun or Node.js. On Bun, the runtime is auto-detected — no extra install needed. For Node.js, install the Node runtime package and its dependencies:

# Node.js only — Bun users can skip this
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-runtime-node
bun add better-sqlite3 argon2 @hono/node-server ws fast-glob

app.config.ts

// Node.js only — pass the runtime explicitly
import { defineApp } from '@lastshotlabs/slingshot';
import { nodeRuntime } from '@lastshotlabs/slingshot-runtime-node';

export default defineApp({ runtime: nodeRuntime(), port: 3000 });

On Bun, omit runtime entirely — @lastshotlabs/slingshot-runtime-bun is auto-detected.

Database drivers

Slingshot adapters are peer dependencies — install the driver for the databases you use:

# MongoDB
bun add mongoose

# Redis (for sessions, cache, queues)
bun add ioredis

# PostgreSQL
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-postgres

SQLite is handled by the runtime package — bun:sqlite on Bun, better-sqlite3 on Node.

Optional auth features

These are peer dependencies — install only when the feature is enabled in your config:

# OAuth social login
bun add @lastshotlabs/slingshot-oauth arctic

# TOTP / time-based MFA
bun add otpauth

# WebAuthn passkeys
bun add @simplewebauthn/server

# File uploads to S3 / R2 / GCS
bun add @aws-sdk/client-s3 @aws-sdk/s3-request-presigner @aws-sdk/lib-storage

# Durable queues (BullMQ event bus)
bun add bullmq

Search providers

# Meilisearch
bun add meilisearch

# Typesense
bun add typesense

# Elasticsearch
bun add @elastic/elasticsearch

# Algolia
bun add algoliasearch

Email providers

# Resend
bun add resend

# Postmark
bun add postmark

# SendGrid
bun add @sendgrid/mail

# Nodemailer (SMTP)
bun add nodemailer

CLI

@lastshotlabs/slingshot ships the slingshot CLI. After installing:

# Start the server — discovers app.config.ts in the current directory
slingshot start

# Run database migrations (Prisma-style flow)
slingshot migrate generate --name init   # write a new migration from entity diffs
slingshot migrate apply                  # apply pending migrations to the DB
slingshot migrate status                 # show applied vs pending
slingshot migrate dev --name init        # generate + apply, the inner-loop shortcut

# Generate entity source files (types, adapters) without applying SQL
slingshot generate --config ./app.config.ts --outdir ./src/generated

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.2 or later — recommended. Use Bun as your package manager and runtime.
• Node.js 20+ — only if using the Node.js runtime adapter (@lastshotlabs/slingshot-runtime-node).

All examples in these docs use Bun. The only difference on Node.js is passing runtime: nodeRuntime() to defineApp.