Localhost spacebar 'npm run start' not working

[somethingcats-dot]

Describe the bug
I'm trying to self host (localhost only) spacebar, I'm not a self host professional, so maybe there was something simple I missed.

I followed the instructions on https://docs.spacebar.chat/setup/server/#setup to step 'npm run start' which gives the error 'DATABASE environment variable not set! Please set it to your database connection string. Example for postgres: postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/database'.

To Reproduce
Follow the instructions to 'npm run start'.

Expected behavior
No error? The docs said it should just be working afterwards.

System Information (please complete the following information):

• OS: Arch Linux
• Node Version: v25.9.0
• Python 3 Version: Python 3.14.4

Env and Software info

• Release: should be latest?
• Database: I don't know, I haven't set one?
• Reverse Proxy: I also don't know.
• Thread Count: no idea.

[TheArcaneBrony]

Sorry, the docs are a bit of a mess at the moment - sounds like it's working.

If you don't have postgres already, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PostgreSQL is your best friend.
Don't forget to make a database for spacebar with createdb -U postgres spacebar

After that, create a new file in the server directory called .env and put this in it:

CONFIG_PATH=config.json
DATABASE=postgres://postgres@127.0.0.1/spacebar

DATABASE takes a value of postgres://user[:password]@host/db_name
After making another attempt to start, it'll error out again about needing to configure some values in config.json:
cdn->endpointPublic: "http://localhost:3001"
cdn->endpointPrivate: "http://localhost:3001"
api->endpointPublic: "http://localhost:3001"
gateway->endpointPublic: "http://localhost:3001"
cdn->endpointPublic: "http://localhost:3001"
general->serverName: "http://localhost:3001"
(I may have forgotten some...)

Here's some docs on many of the available config options:
https://docs.spacebar.chat/setup/server/configuration/
https://docs.spacebar.chat/setup/server/configuration/env/

[TOWUK]

sqlite not worked on win 11 too (have all dependecies)

[TheArcaneBrony]

sqlite is no longer supported, i thought we removed it from the docs?

[TheArcaneBrony]

actually updated the docs now :)