nextgen

nextgen

Next iteration of the Zitadel identity platform.

Preview status: This repository is a pre-release next-generation Zitadel preview. The public name may change, and APIs, CLI flags, package surfaces, and docs are still in flux. The checked-in CLI currently supports the local npm-binary flow documented below; create-first, claim-later is the product direction, but zitadel claim is not shipped in this repo yet. See VISION.md.

Workflow front doors

I am contributing to Zitadel

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contributor setup, Moon commands, local checks, source builds, release workflows, and troubleshooting.

Preview the documentation site with:

moon run docs:dev

I am adding Zitadel to my app

The published zitadel runtime commands run the released local runtime through the @zitadel/server npm binary by default and do not require Docker, Go, Moon, or a source checkout. Docker remains available with zitadel start --runtime docker.

Customer quick start

mkdir myapp
cd myapp
npx @zitadel/cli@alpha doctor
npx @zitadel/cli@alpha start
npx @zitadel/cli@alpha setup --server local
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000/login and register your first local user. The managed Zitadel runtime stores its metadata and data under .zitadel/local/; stop preserves that data and reset --force deletes it. In a fresh directory, setup asks which framework to scaffold and writes the app into the current directory. It installs dependencies with the detected package manager; pass --skip-install if you want to install them yourself.

Manual Docker quick start

Run the API and embedded UIs with Docker Compose when you want to inspect the operator-style stack directly:

cd docs/operations
cp env.example .env
docker compose up -d

Details: docs/quick-start/index.md. To build from source: CONTRIBUTING.md.

Documentation site

The Fumapress/Fumadocs documentation skeleton lives in apps/docs.

moon run docs:dev
moon run docs:build

The docs app bundles the OpenAPI source into a generated reference, exposes static search, and publishes LLM-friendly text at /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, page-level .md URLs, and /mcp.

Current status

This repository is pre-release. The Go server command serves the OpenAPI surface and embeds the console and login UIs at /ui/console/ and /ui/login/. CI produces installable snapshots for review, not official releases.

For product direction and public-readiness notes, see VISION.md.

Contributor workflows

For source builds, local checks, package smoke checks, fresh-app journeys, server bootstrapping, and release tasks, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

CI

Pull requests run parallel CI checks. Branch protection currently requires the GitHub Actions context full-pr, shown in the pull request UI as ci / full-pr. Changesets comments give package release intent feedback without adding a blocking CI gate. ci / full-pr runs the Moon-driven PR confidence path on a 16-core Depot runner:

• Go generated-file drift check, vet, and tests (server:check-generate, server:test).
• pnpm install and Moon lint/typecheck/build/test tasks.
• Built CLI smoke checks.
• npm package dry-run/pack checks.
• A non-publishing Moon release snapshot without building a container.
• The fresh-app journey against the default npm server binary runtime.

Changesets version PRs run a smaller release/package validation path. The Docker fallback journey remains an opt-in local/manual check via moon run workspace:journey -- --runtime docker --image <docker-tag>.

CI uploads short-lived workflow artifacts for review: Moon release snapshot output and npm package tarballs. On consumer journey failures it also uploads focused diagnostics such as Playwright traces, doctor/start/setup JSON, package lock metadata, local runtime logs, and service logs. These artifacts expire after 7 days and are not release artifacts.

Releases

Moon builds the artifacts (Go binaries, containers, archives) and the draft GitHub Release; Changesets owns versions, npm publishing, and release notes, with the public packages on one fixed alpha train. Build a local snapshot with moon run release:snapshot (more in CONTRIBUTING.md). To cut or recover a release, follow the release runbook; for when to add a changeset, see .changeset/README.md; for the rationale, see ADR 002 and ADR 023.

Local development

The devcontainer at .devcontainer/ pins Go 1.26 and a PostgreSQL sidecar.

After changing devcontainer configuration, use Dev Containers: Rebuild Container so features and volume mounts apply.

Docker (integration tests) — both the Postgres and Spanner integration tests use testcontainers to start their databases (a Postgres container and the Cloud Spanner emulator), so a running Docker daemon is required. The devcontainer reuses the host Docker daemon (Docker-outside-of-Docker). Verify inside the container:

docker info

Run the integration tests (same commands as CI):

# Postgres
go test -v -tags postgres_integration -timeout=10m ./...

# Spanner
go test -v -tags spanner_integration -timeout=10m ./...

If docker info fails and the host uses rootless Docker, override the socket mount in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json per the docker-outside-of-docker feature docs, for example bind /run/user/<uid>/docker.sock to /var/run/docker-host.sock (use id -u on the host for <uid>).

To run the integration tests against a database you manage instead of testcontainers, set ZITADEL_TEST_POSTGRES_URL (Postgres DSN) or ZITADEL_TEST_SPANNER_URL (Spanner DSN); every integration suite honors these and connects to your database instead of starting a container, so go test -tags … ./... needs no Docker. Point it at a throwaway database — the suites run migrations that create the zitadel_nextgen schema.