Based

A minimal Backend-as-a-Service you own. Auth, database, REST API — all managed from your terminal. Self-hosted on any VPS.

Bun + Hono + SQLite. One command to deploy, one CLI to manage everything.

Install

curl -fsSL https://based.weirdscience.dev/install.sh | sh

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/WeirdScience-dev/based.git
cd based && bun install && bun run setup

Quick start

# Set up Based on any VPS
based init 51.83.44.93 --domain based.yourdomain.com

# Create a project
based new my-app

# Log in (auto-creates account)
based login my-app -e you@email.com

# Create tables — CRUD endpoints are instant
based table create posts title:text:required content:text status:text:default=draft

# Generate TypeScript types
based typegen

That's it. Your API is live at https://my-app.based.yourdomain.com.

React SDK

bun add @weirdscience/based-client

import { createClient, BasedProvider, useQuery, useMutation } from "@weirdscience/based-client";
import type { Tables } from "./based.d.ts";

const based = createClient({
  url: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BASED_URL!,
  anonKey: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BASED_ANON_KEY!,
});

function App({ children }) {
  return <BasedProvider client={based}>{children}</BasedProvider>;
}

function Posts() {
  const { data } = useQuery<Tables, "posts">("posts");
  const { mutate } = useMutation<Tables, "posts">("posts", "create");

  return (
    <>
      {data?.map(post => <div key={post.id}>{post.title}</div>)}
      <button onClick={() => mutate({ title: "Hello" })}>New post</button>
    </>
  );
}

CLI reference

Command	Description
based init <host> -d <domain>	Set up Based on a VPS
based deploy	Push code updates to the server
based new <name>	Create a project
based list	List all projects
based delete <name>	Delete a project
based login <project> -e <email>	Log in to a project
based logout	Clear credentials
based table create <name> <cols...>	Create a table
based table add-column <table> <cols...>	Add columns
based table drop-column <table> <cols...>	Drop columns
based table drop <name>	Drop a table
based table list	List tables and columns
based env <name>	Print .env.local vars
based typegen	Generate TypeScript types

Column syntax

name:type[:required][:unique][:default=value][:ref=table.column]

Types: text, integer, real, blob

API endpoints

Every project gets auth and auto-generated CRUD:

POST   /auth/signup        # { email, password } → tokens
POST   /auth/signin        # { email, password } → tokens
POST   /auth/refresh       # { refreshToken } → new tokens
POST   /auth/signout       # invalidate session

GET    /api/:table          # list (paginated, filterable)
GET    /api/:table/:id      # get one
POST   /api/:table          # create (auth required)
PUT    /api/:table/:id      # update (auth required)
DELETE /api/:table/:id      # delete (auth required)

Anonymous read access via apikey header. Write requires a JWT.

Architecture

packages/
  server/    Hono API server (Bun + SQLite)
  cli/       CLI tool (compiles to standalone binary)
  client/    React SDK (useQuery, useMutation, useUser)
  web/       Landing page + docs (Next.js)

• One server process handles all projects via subdomain routing
• Each project gets its own SQLite database in /srv/based/projects/<name>/
• Tables are created via API — no schema files, no migrations
• based typegen pulls types from the server for end-to-end type safety
• Deployed as Docker container with Nginx reverse proxy

License

MIT