Prerequisites

Get the following in place before running the installer. Most steps take a few minutes; DNS propagation can take longer.

A Cloudflare account

Cirrus runs on Cloudflare Workers and stores blobs in R2, so you need a Cloudflare account.

Sign up at cloudflare.com if needed. The free Workers plan is enough to start. R2 needs to be enabled separately from the R2 section of the dashboard, and requires a payment method on file. Usage should still be within the free tier for typical personal use.

A domain on Cloudflare

The PDS needs a hostname. Cirrus serves the account from a domain that is active in Cloudflare DNS.

The domain controls two things at once:

• The PDS hostname (for example pds.example.com).
• The account handle (for example alice.example.com) if did:web is used, or any compatible handle if did:plc is used.

Add the domain to Cloudflare:

1. Log into the Cloudflare dashboard.
2. Choose Add a site and enter the domain.
3. Follow the prompts to update the domain’s nameservers at the registrar.
4. Wait for DNS to propagate. This usually takes a few minutes and can take up to 24 hours.

The domain must show as Active in the Cloudflare dashboard before the deploy step.

Node.js and a package manager

Cirrus is distributed as npm packages. The scaffolder runs under Node 20 or later. Any of pnpm, npm, yarn, or bun work; the scaffolder asks which to use.

Bluesky account credentials, if migrating

Migrating an existing Bluesky account requires:

• The current handle and account password.
• Access to the email address registered with Bluesky (for the PLC operation token).

Cirrus also supports creating a new account from scratch. The wizard offers both paths.

Once the Cloudflare account is live and the domain shows as Active, continue to the Quick start.