Prepare your installation

1. Extract the release package from your CZ App Studio purchase into a private working directory.
2. Extract the Core download into a folder for the application, for example backend/. The guides call this folder backend/; run application commands from it. Add-ons are installed later from Settings → Modules.
3. Create a dedicated database and a user restricted to that database.
4. Point an application hostname, such as hr.example.com, to the application server.
5. Configure HTTPS and set the web document root to the full path of backend/public.
6. Arrange SMTP delivery, scheduled tasks and worker services.

Do not expose the repository root, .env, source, backups or private uploads through the public document root.

Install dependencies

cd backend
composer install --no-dev --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader
composer check-platform-reqs --no-dev
npm ci
npm run build
npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

Use the supplied lockfiles. Node.js and Chromium are also required on the application server for letters, payslips and PDF exports. Run the browser installation for the account that runs PHP and queue workers, or set PDF_CHROMIUM_BINARY to an installed Chromium executable. Set PDF_NODE_BINARY if Node is not on the service account's PATH. Install fonts for the languages you enable; the Docker image includes Noto fonts. Keep Chromium sandboxing enabled and run application services as a non-root user. Do not deploy a development public/hot file. Composer dependencies must match the server's PHP platform.

Create private configuration

On a new installation only:

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
php artisan jwt:secret

Continue with configuration. Do not overwrite an existing .env or regenerate encryption/authentication keys during updates.