h4ckbot

Quick Start

Get h4ckbot running locally in under 5 minutes.

1

Clone and configure

Clone the repository and copy the example environment file.

git clone https://github.com/your-org/pentest-ai.git
cd pentest-ai
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

Open backend/.env and set at minimum:

H4CKBOT_LICENSE_KEY=<your-licence-key>
SECRET_KEY=<random 32-byte hex>
2

Start the stack

Docker Compose brings up Postgres, Redis, the FastAPI backend, and the Next.js frontend.

docker compose up -d

First boot takes ~2 minutes while images are pulled and the frontend is compiled.

3

Run database migrations

docker compose exec backend alembic upgrade head

This creates all tables and inserts the default persona seed.

4

Create your admin account

Navigate to http://localhost:3000/sign-up and register. Then promote your account to admin:

docker compose exec postgres psql -U postgres -d pentest_ai \
  -c "UPDATE users SET role='admin' WHERE email='you@example.com';"
5

Start chatting

Go to http://localhost:3000, sign in, and open a new conversation. The default persona is h4ckbot — see the Personas guide to customise it.

Next steps