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Windows Setup Guide

Complete guide to installing and configuring Bootspring on Windows.

System Requirements#

RequirementMinimumRecommended
Windows10 (1903+)11
Processorx64x64
Memory4 GB RAM8 GB RAM
Disk500 MB1 GB
Node.jsv18.0.0v20.x LTS

Installation Methods#

Method 1: Chocolatey (Recommended)#

1# Install Chocolatey (if needed) 2Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force 3[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072 4iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1')) 5 6# Install Node.js 7choco install nodejs 8 9# Install Bootspring 10npm install -g bootspring 11 12# Verify 13bootspring --version

Method 2: Windows Package Manager (winget)#

# Install Node.js winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS # Restart terminal, then install Bootspring npm install -g bootspring

Method 3: Node.js Installer#

  1. Download from nodejs.org
  2. Run the installer
  3. Restart terminal
  4. Install Bootspring:
npm install -g bootspring

Method 4: nvm-windows#

For managing multiple Node.js versions:

1# Download nvm-windows from: 2# https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows/releases 3 4# After installation 5nvm install 20 6nvm use 20 7 8# Install Bootspring 9npm install -g bootspring

Terminal Options#

Windows Terminal (Recommended)#

Install from Microsoft Store or:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

Configure in Settings (Ctrl+,):

1{ 2 "profiles": { 3 "defaults": { 4 "font": { 5 "face": "Cascadia Code", 6 "size": 12 7 } 8 } 9 } 10}

PowerShell 7#

winget install Microsoft.PowerShell

Git Bash#

Included with Git for Windows:

winget install Git.Git

WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux)#

For a Linux-like experience:

1# Enable WSL 2wsl --install 3 4# Install Ubuntu (or preferred distro) 5wsl --install -d Ubuntu 6 7# Inside WSL, follow Linux setup guide

PowerShell Configuration#

Profile Setup#

Open PowerShell profile:

notepad $PROFILE

Add completions and aliases:

1# Bootspring completions 2if (Get-Command bootspring -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) { 3 Invoke-Expression (bootspring completions powershell | Out-String) 4} 5 6# Aliases 7Set-Alias -Name bs -Value bootspring 8function bsg { bootspring generate } 9function bsa { bootspring agent invoke $args } 10function bss { bootspring status }

Save and reload:

. $PROFILE

Execution Policy#

If scripts are blocked:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Authentication#

Browser Login#

bootspring login

Opens your default browser for authentication.

Device Code#

For terminals without browser access:

bootspring login --device

Environment Variable#

For CI/CD and automation:

1# Current session 2$env:BOOTSPRING_API_KEY = "bs_live_xxx" 3 4# Permanent (User) 5[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("BOOTSPRING_API_KEY", "bs_live_xxx", "User") 6 7# Verify 8bootspring status

Project Setup#

Initialize Project#

cd C:\Projects\my-app bootspring init

Interactive Mode#

bootspring init --interactive

Quick Setup#

bootspring init --yes

VS Code Integration#

Install VS Code#

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

Install Extension#

code --install-extension bootspring.bootspring-vscode

Or via VS Code:

  1. Open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X)
  2. Search "Bootspring"
  3. Install

Configure Extension#

Settings (Ctrl+,):

{ "bootspring.autoGenerate": true, "bootspring.showStatusBar": true, "bootspring.terminal": "pwsh" }

Integrated Terminal#

VS Code uses PowerShell by default. Bootspring works seamlessly:

bootspring generate bootspring agent invoke frontend-expert "Create a component"

Claude Desktop Integration#

Install Claude Desktop#

  1. Download from claude.ai/download
  2. Run the installer
  3. Sign in with your Anthropic account

Configure MCP Server#

bootspring mcp install

Manual Configuration#

If automatic setup fails, edit: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

1{ 2 "mcpServers": { 3 "bootspring": { 4 "command": "npx", 5 "args": ["-y", "bootspring", "mcp", "serve"], 6 "env": { 7 "BOOTSPRING_API_KEY": "your-api-key" 8 } 9 } 10 } 11}

Verify MCP#

  1. Restart Claude Desktop
  2. Check for "bootspring" in available tools
  3. Test: "Use bootspring_context to describe this project"

JetBrains IDE Setup#

Install Plugin#

  1. Open Settings (Ctrl+Alt+S)
  2. Plugins → Marketplace
  3. Search "Bootspring"
  4. Install and restart

Terminal Configuration#

Settings → Tools → Terminal:

  • Shell path: pwsh.exe or C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe

Run Configurations#

Create a Run Configuration for Bootspring:

  1. Run → Edit Configurations
  2. Add → Shell Script
  3. Script: bootspring generate

Windows Defender Configuration#

Windows Defender may scan Node.js operations, causing slowdowns.

Add Exclusions#

# Run as Administrator Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\npm" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\.bootspring" Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "node.exe"

Verify Exclusions#

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ExclusionPath

Path Configuration#

Check PATH#

$env:PATH -split ';'

Add npm Global to PATH#

1# Find npm global path 2npm config get prefix 3 4# Add to PATH (User) 5$npmPath = (npm config get prefix) 6[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( 7 "Path", 8 [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User") + ";$npmPath", 9 "User" 10)

WSL 2 Setup#

For a Linux-like experience on Windows:

Enable WSL 2#

# Run as Administrator wsl --install

Install Ubuntu#

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Configure WSL#

Inside WSL:

1# Update packages 2sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade 3 4# Install Node.js 5curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash - 6sudo apt-get install -y nodejs 7 8# Install Bootspring 9npm install -g bootspring 10 11# Verify 12bootspring --version

Access Windows Projects#

# Windows files are at /mnt/c/ cd /mnt/c/Projects/my-app bootspring init

VS Code with WSL#

  1. Install "Remote - WSL" extension
  2. Open folder in WSL: code . from WSL terminal

Credential Manager#

Store API key securely:

Using cmdkey#

# Store cmdkey /add:bootspring /user:api /pass:bs_live_xxx # Retrieve (in scripts) $cred = cmdkey /list:bootspring

Using PowerShell SecretManagement#

1# Install module 2Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement 3Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore 4 5# Register vault 6Register-SecretVault -Name "LocalStore" -ModuleName Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore 7 8# Store secret 9Set-Secret -Name "BootspringApiKey" -Secret "bs_live_xxx" 10 11# Retrieve 12$env:BOOTSPRING_API_KEY = Get-Secret -Name "BootspringApiKey" -AsPlainText

Troubleshooting#

'bootspring' is not recognized#

1# Check npm global path 2npm config get prefix 3 4# Add to PATH 5$env:PATH += ";$(npm config get prefix)" 6 7# Or reinstall 8npm install -g bootspring

Permission Denied#

1# Run as Administrator, or fix npm permissions 2npm config set prefix "$env:APPDATA\npm" 3 4# Add to PATH 5[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( 6 "Path", 7 "$env:APPDATA\npm;" + [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User"), 8 "User" 9)

SSL Certificate Errors#

# Update npm npm install -g npm@latest # Or configure cert npm config set cafile "C:\path\to\cert.pem"

Long Path Issues#

Enable long paths in Windows:

# Run as Administrator New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" ` -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force

Antivirus Blocking#

If antivirus software blocks Bootspring:

  1. Add exclusion for node.exe
  2. Add exclusion for npm global directory
  3. Add exclusion for project directories

PowerShell Execution Policy#

# Check current policy Get-ExecutionPolicy # Set to allow scripts Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Health Check#

bootspring doctor

Expected output:

Bootspring Health Check ======================= System: ✓ Windows 11 Pro (22H2) ✓ AMD Ryzen 9 5900X ✓ 32 GB RAM Runtime: ✓ Node.js v20.10.0 (x64) ✓ npm v10.2.3 ✓ Bootspring v1.2.0 Configuration: ✓ Config file: Valid ✓ Context file: Present ✓ API key: Configured Network: ✓ API: Connected ✓ Latency: 52ms Integrations: ✓ Claude Desktop: Configured ✓ VS Code: Extension installed All 12 checks passed!

Uninstallation#

Remove Bootspring#

npm uninstall -g bootspring

Clean Configuration#

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.bootspring" Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\bootspring"

Remove Environment Variables#

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("BOOTSPRING_API_KEY", $null, "User")

Remove MCP Configuration#

Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json and remove the bootspring entry.

Next Steps#