Install

Let your AI do it

You do not have to read any of this. Give the line below to Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Grok or whatever you use, and it will set the whole thing up: the server, your subdomain, email in, and your first sign-in.

Step one, and often the only step

Paste this to your AI

Install Surfing Dog Inbox for my business. Follow the instructions at https://surfingdog.ai/install.md exactly, ask me before anything that costs money or changes DNS, and verify each step before moving on.

It will ask you a few things it cannot know: where you want it to run, which subdomain, which address signs in as the owner. It is told to ask before anything that costs money or touches your DNS, and to check its work after every step rather than assume.

What it does

The same five things, either way

  • Puts it somewhere. Cloudflare, about five dollars a month, or your own server.
  • Gives it your subdomain. Usually inbox.yourdomain.com, with a certificate.
  • Turns on email in, so a customer can simply write to it, and proves it with a test message.
  • Signs you in and hands you the key, once.
  • Sets your business up: hours, services, products, and the rules that answer for you.

The instructions it follows are at /install.md. They are written for a machine: every secret is generated rather than guessed, every step has a command that proves it worked, and it is told to stop and tell you rather than carry on when a check fails. Read them yourself if you like.

Already running other software?

Connect what you already use

Your shop, your calendar, your CRM: you do not need a plug-in for each. Give your AI the line below. It connects the inbox to them where that works today, and tells you plainly where it does not. 

Connect my Surfing Dog Inbox to the software I already use. Follow https://surfingdog.ai/connect.md exactly, ask me which tools I use, ask before changing a setting in another system or sending an email for me, and test every connection before telling me it works.

Each system that calls your inbox gets its own key, which you can revoke in Settings → Keys. The steps it follows are at /connect.md. Built-in connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce, Google Calendar, Stripe and Mollie are coming, and you can vote for yours on the requests board.

Or do it yourself

It is four commands

git clone https://github.com/surfingdogai/inbox && cd inbox
pnpm install
pnpm --filter @surfingdog/inbox build
node apps/inbox/dist/server.mjs

That is a working inbox on localhost:8787 with its database in a file beside it. The Quickstart takes it from there to a real domain.