# Setup example on TurboStack

In this example, we will set up a MedusaJS instance on TurboStack. This will include the demo frontend and the MedusaJS backend.

If you only want to set up the backend, you can choose this in project creation later. MedusaJS exposes API's for you to 'Plug in' your own frontend.

MedusaJS requires:

• NodeJS 20+ (LTS versions only)
• PostgreSQL

The dashboard (backend) runs on port 9000/app and the demo frontend runs on port 8000.

These technologies can easily be set up on TurboStack. Just paste the following YAML configuration in the TurboStack GUI, change the values where needed (e.g. the domain names) and click Publish:

webserver: nginx
postgresql_version: 18
system_users:
  - username: demo
    vhosts:
      - server_name: shopname.tld www.shopname.tld
        app_name: frontend
        nodejs_version: 24
        cert_type: letsencrypt
        proxy_enabled: true
        proxy_upstream_port: "8000"
        
      - server_name: dashboard.shopname.tld www.dashboard.shopname.tld
        app_name: dashboard
        nodejs_version: 24
        cert_type: letsencrypt
        proxy_enabled: true
        proxy_upstream_port: "9000"

Note: If you only want to set up the backend, you can remove the frontend vhost.

After the deploy succeeded, we can start setting up the server. We will use generic names, for this example. You can change these to your own.

Make a new project directory and navigate to it:

mkdir project
cd project

Important: You don't want to place this in the public_html directory, as it will expose sensitive files to the public.

To create a MedusaJS project, run the following command:

npx create-medusa-app@latest <shopname>

This will start the interactive install process. Follow the prompts to complete the installation:

? Would you like to install the Next.js Starter Storefront? You can also install it later. Yes
? Enter your Postgres username demo_db
? Enter your Postgres password [hidden]
? Enter your Postgres user's database name demo_db

The credentials for PostgreSQL can be found in the TurboStack GUI under the Credentials button.

The installer is finished, when you see the following message:

✔ Server is ready on port: 9000

Once the server is ready, you can stop it with Ctrl + C. This is only a test environment, we'll set it up for production later.

Note: If you only want the backend, say 'No' to the first prompt.

To log into the dashboard, you'll need to create an admin login. Change the values to your preference:

npx medusa user -e yourmail@tld.com -p <StrongPassword>

To whitelist your domain in MedusaJS, you'll need to add it to the allowedHosts array in the medusa-config.js file.

This file can be found at: ~/<project>/<shopname>/medusa-config.ts. When configured, it should look like this:

import { loadEnv, defineConfig } from '@medusajs/framework/utils'

loadEnv(process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development', process.cwd())

module.exports = defineConfig({
  projectConfig: {
    databaseUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
    http: {
      storeCors: process.env.STORE_CORS!,
      adminCors: process.env.ADMIN_CORS!,
      authCors: process.env.AUTH_CORS!,
      jwtSecret: process.env.JWT_SECRET || "supersecret",
      cookieSecret: process.env.COOKIE_SECRET || "supersecret",
    },
  },

  admin: {
    // Add this block to allow your custom host in Vite dev server
    vite: (config) => {
      return {
        ...config,
        server: {
          // allow the host (and subdomains) that serve your admin dashboard
          allowedHosts: [".medusadashboard.hosted-power.dev"],
        },
      }
    },
  },
})

The demo version is not suitable for production use. You'll need build it for production first.

Go into the store directory ~/<project>/<shopname>/ and enter the following command:

npx medusa build

This should give an output like this:

info:    redisUrl not found. A fake redis instance will be used.
info:    Using flag MEDUSA_FF_CACHING from environment with value true
info:    Starting build...
info:    Compiling backend source...
info:    Removing existing ".medusa/server" folder
info:    Compiling frontend source...
info:    Backend build completed successfully (2.97s)
info:    Frontend build completed successfully (16.17s)

Change into ~/<project>/<shopname>/.medusa/server and install the dependencies:

npm install

Now copy over the environment file from the medusa project root directory:

cp ../../.env .env

We can now try to start the server with:

npx medusa start

Now we can test if the backend loads by opening https://dashboard.shopname.tld in your browser. If the backend is confirmed to work, we can now set up the PM2 user service for it with the following command:

pm2 start "npx medusa start"  --name medusa-backend

To get the storefront to run, cd into ~/<project>/<shopname>-storefront and install npm dependencies:

npm install

Build it:

npm run build

Start it:

npm start

This should give an output like:

> medusa-next@1.0.3 start
> next start -p 8000

   ▲ Next.js 15.3.6
   - Local:        http://localhost:8000
   - Network:      http://85.9.219.32:8000

 ✓ Starting...
 ✓ Ready in 240ms

If the frontend is confirmed to work, we can CTRL+C to stop it, and set up the PM2 user service for it with the following command:

pm2 start "npm start"  --name storefront

If you want to automate the deployment process, you can do two things:

• Include the database connectionstring in the create-medusa-app command
• use the --with-nextjs-starter flag to include the storefront, then delete it after the install.
• Grab the Postgres credentials on the server, instead of the TurboStack GUI.

To get the Postgres credentials, run the following command in the home directory of the user:

cat .pgpass

The command should look like this:

npx create-medusa-app@latest shopname --db-url "postgres://<username>:<password>@localhost:5432/<dbname>" --with-nextjs-starter