Installation

Prerequisites

System requirements and dependencies before installing Aelio.

Runtime requirements

Requirement	Version	Required for
Node.js	≥ 20	SDK, server, widget
pnpm	≥ 9	Building Aelio from source
Python	≥ 3.9	Python SDK only
Docker	Any recent	Production server deployment

LLM provider (optional for local dev)

Set an API key for real LLM responses. Without one, the server uses a built-in mock LLM:

Provider	API key	Config profile
OpenAI (default)	`OPENAI_API_KEY`	`config.openai.yaml`
Anthropic	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	`config.anthropic.yaml`
Gemini	`GEMINI_API_KEY`	`config.gemini.yaml`
Groq	`GROQ_API_KEY`	—
Ollama	None (local)	—

Secrets

You need one shared secret for SDK ↔ Server auth:

export AELIO_SDK_SECRET=change-me-in-production

Generate a strong secret for production:

openssl rand -hex 32

Never put AELIO_SDK_SECRET in frontend code.

Three secrets (do not conflate)

Secret	Purpose	Where it lives
`AELIO_SDK_SECRET`	SDK ↔ Server auth	Server env + your backend env
LLM API key	Server ↔ LLM provider	Server env only
Session token	Widget ↔ Server auth	Issued per-user, short-lived

Repository setup (from source)

git clone https://github.com/aelio-dev/aelio.git
cd aelio
pnpm install
pnpm build

Database (for your app)

Aelio Server uses embedded SQLite. Your application uses its own database (Postgres, MySQL, etc.) — Aelio never touches it.

Installation

Install and configure the Aelio server, SDK, and chat widget.

Install Server

Deploy or run the Aelio server locally or with Docker.

On this page

Runtime requirements LLM provider (optional for local dev)Secrets Three secrets (do not conflate)Repository setup (from source)Database (for your app)