Make sure you've completed the prerequisites for your platform first: macOS or Linux.

Clone and bootstrap

git clone https://github.com/fronalabs/frona.git
cd frona
mise trust
mise install

mise install automatically installs the full toolchain: Rust 1.89, Node 22, rust-analyzer, and cargo-watch. Everything is defined in mise.toml. No manual Rust or Node setup needed.

Repository layout

The repo is a Cargo workspace with the frontend alongside:

Path	Contents
crates/frona-server/	Backend server (binary frona)
crates/frona-cli-mcp/	The mcpctl CLI used inside MCP sandboxes
crates/frona-api-types/	Shared API contract types
crates/frona-derive/	Procedural macros
web/	Next.js frontend
resources/	Prompt templates, policy schema, channel manifests, agent definitions
data/	Local runtime state (DB, config, workspaces); gitignored

Run the dev environment

mise run docker:dev

This starts everything in Docker with hot-reload: Frona backend, frontend, Browserless, and SearXNG. No additional setup required.

Once running, open http://localhost:3000 to access the Frona UI. On first launch, the setup wizard walks you through configuring API keys, model groups, and optional integrations, all from the browser. Settings are saved to data/config.yaml.

You can also configure environment variables via mise.local.toml instead. See the Using mise guide for details and more commands.