Installation

Prerequisites

Rust (edition 2024)
pnpm (only needed for frontend development)

Build from Source

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/johnkozan/clawcounting.git
cd clawcounting
cargo install --path .

# Verify
clawcounting --version

Quick Start

# Initialize the database and start the server
clawcounting init
clawcounting serve

The server starts at http://localhost:3000. On first run, you’ll be guided through setup (creating your first user) via the web UI.

Configuration

ClawCounting works out of the box with sensible defaults – no configuration file needed. You can optionally override settings via environment variables or a .env file:

Variable	Default	Description
`CLAWCOUNTING_DB`	`./clawcounting.db`	SQLite database file path
`CLAWCOUNTING_PORT`	`3000`	HTTP server port
`CLAWCOUNTING_JWT_SECRET`	Auto-generated	JWT signing secret. Auto-generated and stored in DB if not set.
`CLAWCOUNTING_API_KEY`	–	API key for CLI write operations. Alternative to `--api-key` flag.

A .env.example file is included in the repository for reference.

What Gets Created

Running clawcounting init creates:

The SQLite database file (default: ./clawcounting.db)
All tables, indexes, triggers, and migrations
A JWT secret (stored in the settings table)

Running clawcounting serve starts:

REST API at /api/v1/*
Web UI at /
Swagger API docs at /swagger-ui/
Health check at /health