Setup

The very first time IllusionDB starts, there are two ways to create the first administrator account:

• Use the setup page: start without further settings and fill in the setup dialog shown in the browser.
• Set environment variables: set ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD before starting – IllusionDB then creates the account automatically (handy for Docker and unattended installations).

The two setup options

Below username and password, the setup dialog offers two checkboxes:

Checkbox	Default	What happens
Install the handbook	on	This handbook appears as its own data source “Handbuch” in the sidebar – one table per language, each with a wiki view.
Install demo data	off	Creates a sample agency “Brightline Studio” as its own SQLite data source “Demo” (contents below).

Setting up with the options takes a few seconds; the page shows a loading indicator meanwhile. If one of the options fails, your account still exists and you are logged in – the page shows the message and a Continue without button.

The demo data is only offered during setup. You can remove it at any time: delete the data source “Demo” under Managing data sources (plus the groups Project team, Finance and Marketing, the scripts, the document template Invoice and the media library folders, if you don’t need them).

What the demo data contains

A small digital agency with coherent sample data in English – dates and deadlines are relative to the day of installation, so calendar and Gantt show something right away:

• Tables clients, people, projects, tasks, time_entries, invoices, invoice_items, meetings, wiki_pages, blog_posts, plus contacts (created through the CSV import) and services (through the SQL import).
• Every field type: text, long text (Markdown), number, decimal, yes/no, date, date+time, UUID, JSON, auto number, attachment, 1:n foreign key (also self-referencing), n:m links, lookup, rollup, formula and child records – plus every display format (label, tags, date, currency, data size, duration, email, phone, URL, colour, button, Markdown).
• Every view: grid with filter, sort, grouping and summaries, Kanban (task board), calendar (meetings, deadlines), Gantt (schedule with sub-tasks, dependencies and milestones; project roadmap), wiki (company wiki), CMS (blog, team, clients) and documents view (invoices).
• Media library: logos, photos and PDFs in virtual folders, one file reused several times.
• Automation: a public custom endpoint GET /api/v1/scripts/demo/hello, an authenticated GET /api/v1/scripts/demo/projects/:id/summary and a hook that moves tasks with 100 % progress to Done; two saved SQL snippets.
• Document template Invoice for the invoices.
• Groups Project team, Finance and Marketing with table permissions – but no additional user accounts, no API tokens and no webhooks.

Environment variables for the first setup

When the first admin is created through ADMIN_EMAIL/ADMIN_PASSWORD, two variables replace the checkboxes:

Variable	Default	Meaning
INSTALL_MANUAL	true	install the handbook
INSTALL_DEMO	false	install the demo data

Both only apply to the very first start of an empty installation. Existing installations stay as they are – the handbook there is still created exactly once and not restored after being deleted.

Afterward, continue straight to The Interface at a Glance.