Installation

VoxelSite installs in minutes. Upload the files, run the installer, start building.

Step 1: Upload files

Extract the VoxelSite zip file and upload the contents to your web server using FTP, SFTP, or your hosting file manager.

Place the files in:

• Shared hosting (cPanel): Your public_html or www directory
• VPS / Forge / RunCloud: Your site's document root

The zip contains everything needed — including the vendor/ directory. No composer install or command-line steps required.

Nginx / Forge / RunCloud / Ploi: Set the web directory to / (not /public — VoxelSite is not a Laravel app). You also need to add clean URL rewriting — see Nginx Configuration.

Step 2: Run the installer

Open your browser and navigate to:

yourdomain.com/_studio/

The VoxelSite installer will start automatically. It walks you through:

1. Requirements check — verifies PHP version, extensions, and writable directories
2. Admin account — your name, email, and password for the Studio
3. AI provider — select your provider and enter your API key

That's it. VoxelSite creates the SQLite database and configures everything automatically.

Supported AI providers

VoxelSite works with any of these providers. You'll need an API key — grab one before running the installer:

You can switch providers at any time in Settings → AI Provider.

Step 3: Start building

After installation, VoxelSite Studio opens automatically. Describe the website you want to build, and VoxelSite will generate it.

For the best experience, increase your server's PHP execution timeout to 600 seconds. This lets the Studio stream the AI response in real time. If you can't change it (e.g. on shared hosting), VoxelSite will still work — it automatically switches to polling mode when the connection drops. See Requirements → PHP execution timeout for details.

Setting up a demo? If you're installing VoxelSite to showcase it to clients or prospects, see Demo Mode for how to turn your installation into a read-only demo with a single file.

Updating

See Updating for how to update to the latest version.

Password recovery

If you forget your Studio password:

1. Create an empty file named .reset in the _data/ directory (via FTP or file manager)
2. Go to the Studio login screen and click Forgot?
3. Enter your email and new password
4. Click Reset Password

The .reset file is consumed after use — you'll need to create a new one for future resets.

Troubleshooting

Something not working? See Common Issues for quick fixes, or Getting Support if you need help.

Nginx users

VoxelSite includes .htaccess for Apache, which works out of the box. If you're using Nginx (Forge, RunCloud, Ploi, or a custom VPS), you need to add clean URL rewriting and security rules to your site configuration. See Nginx Configuration for the setup guide and a complete config example.

Using the Agent API on Nginx? Routing works automatically via the Studio router fallback — no Nginx rewrite rule is required. For direct routing (recommended for production performance), you can add an optional rewrite rule. However, fastcgi_param HTTP_AUTHORIZATION $http_authorization; is required inside your location ~ \.php$ block — without it, Nginx strips the Authorization header and all API requests fail with 401. See Nginx Configuration for the exact directives.