Overview

Installing an ARK product takes about five minutes per product, plus the one-time work of creating a Supabase project and a Vercel project. This page explains what you'll be doing before you start clicking.

What you need before you start

Three free accounts. You can sign up for each in under a minute.

Account	What it's for	Link
Supabase	Holds your database and handles user logins	supabase.com
Vercel	Hosts your website and runs the code	vercel.com
GitHub	Stores your copy of the ARK source code	github.com

You also need:

Node.js 20 or later installed on your computer (download here). This lets you run the code locally if you ever want to. You won't need it just to deploy.
Your ARK license key, which we emailed you when you purchased. It looks like ARK-A1B2-C3D4-E5F6-G7H8.
Your GitHub repo invitation, also emailed. Accept it before you start so the code is in your account.

How an ARK deployment fits together

Every ARK product is a website with a database behind it. You get three pieces, and you connect them once:

        Your code             Your hosting           Your data
   ┌────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
   │  GitHub repo   │ ──> │     Vercel      │ <─>│   Supabase   │
   │  (your copy)   │     │  (the website)  │    │ (the database)│
   └────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘    └──────────────┘

GitHub holds your copy of the source code. You own it. Nobody else has a copy of your repo.
Vercel turns that code into a live website. Every time you push a change to GitHub, Vercel rebuilds the site automatically.
Supabase stores your data — users, contacts, messages, whatever the product manages. Your data lives in your Supabase project, not ours.

We never see your data. We never have access to your Vercel or Supabase. You own the whole stack.

How long this takes

Step	Time
Sign up for Supabase, Vercel, GitHub	5 minutes (one-time)
Set up Supabase for one ARK product	2 minutes
Set up Vercel for one ARK product	2 minutes
Run the database schema	1 minute
Total per product	~5 minutes

If you bought multiple ARK products, each additional product is faster because you can reuse the same Supabase project.

What the next pages cover

Setting Up Supabase — create a project, find the two values Vercel needs.
Setting Up Vercel — connect GitHub, paste the values, deploy.
Running the Database Schema — create the tables your product uses.
Environment Variables — the full list of values, where each one comes from.
Your First Login — the first account you create becomes the admin. We explain why.
Multi-Product Setup — how to share one Supabase project across several ARK products.
Verify Your Deployment — a checklist to confirm everything works.