> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ship.paralect.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Ship is an AI-native, batteries-included full-stack TypeScript SaaS starter. Build products, not boilerplate.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/ship/NJ8GmOFvTnU_w738/images/ship.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=NJ8GmOFvTnU_w738&q=85&s=c7955fe05812f01991eed85354fc6da0" alt="" width="7840" height="3200" data-path="images/ship.png" />

**Ship** is an AI-native, batteries-included full-stack TypeScript SaaS starter. It gives you a production-ready API and web app, a plugin system for every feature, and **standardised patterns** that you — and your AI agents — can build on without guesswork.

> **Build products, not boilerplate.**

Ship has been live-tested on 100+ products at [Paralect](https://www.paralect.com/). 3.0.0 rebuilds it on a modern, type-safe stack — [TanStack Start](https://tanstack.com/start), [Hono](https://hono.dev/) + [oRPC](https://orpc.unnoq.com/), [Drizzle](https://orm.drizzle.team/) + [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/) — and ships first-class context for coding agents.

## What you get

`@paralect/ship` scaffolds a [pnpm](https://pnpm.io/) + [Turborepo](https://turbo.build/repo/docs) monorepo in one of two shapes:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="PostgreSQL + TanStack Start" icon="layer-group" href="/docs/architecture">
    **Full-stack.** A Hono + oRPC + Drizzle API (`apps/api`) and a TanStack Start web app (`apps/web`), with end-to-end type safety flowing from the API to the client.
  </Card>

  <Card title="TanStack Start web-only" icon="browser" href="/docs/web/server-functions">
    **Web-only.** A standalone TanStack Start SPA (`apps/web`) with no separate API — your backend logic lives in type-safe **server functions**.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Auth, file storage, email, AI chat and an admin panel are **plugins** you opt into — each copies into your codebase, so you own and can edit every line.

## AI-native by design

Ship is built so coding agents have ground truth and one obvious way to do things:

* **`AGENTS.md`** at the repo root and scoped to `apps/api` and `apps/web`, plus a progressive-disclosure index of workflow docs.
* **Skills** for the patterns that matter — `no-useEffect`, TanStack Start server functions, scaffolding with the CLI.
* **Codegen** keeps the oRPC router, contract, typed client and `DbService` in sync, so the types an agent reads are always real.
* **Standardised patterns** — every resource owns its endpoints, schemas, jobs, crons and methods, mounted by file path. Less to infer, less to get wrong.
* **[`llms.txt`](/docs/llms)** for dropping the whole docs set into Cursor, Claude or ChatGPT.

## Quick start

```bash theme={null}
npx @paralect/ship init
```

<Info>`npx create-ship-app@latest init` works too — it resolves to the same CLI.</Info>

The CLI asks which setup you want, lets you pick plugins, and chooses a deployment target. Then:

```bash theme={null}
cd my-ship-app
pnpm start
```

`pnpm start` brings up infrastructure, runs migrations, and starts every service. 🚀

## Key principles

### 🧭 Standardised patterns. Zero guesswork.

Every resource owns its endpoints, schemas, jobs, crons and methods. File-based mounting and end-to-end type safety mean there's one obvious way to build — easy for you and your agents to follow.

### 🔌 Everything is a plugin. Every plugin is your code.

Install a feature with one command and it copies into your repo — edit, extend, delete. Like shadcn/ui, but for your entire stack.

### 🚀 Production-ready.

Auth, migrations, background jobs, file storage, websockets, email, logging and CI are wired up and battle-tested on real products.

### 🥷 For developers and their agents.

Ship is written to be read — by humans and by the models that now write half the code. The docs explain how things work and why.

## Next steps

* Learn the [architecture](/docs/architecture) and [how Ship works](/docs/how-ship-works).
* Explore the [API](/docs/api-reference/overview), the [Web app](/docs/web/overview), and [server functions](/docs/web/server-functions).
* [Scaffold a project](/docs/packages/create-ship-app) and [deploy it](/docs/deployment/digital-ocean-apps).