2. Setup

Install Bialet

The quickest way is the install script:

curl -fsSL https://get.bialet.dev | sh

For other options (Homebrew, Docker, building from source), see Installation.

Create a project

Make a new directory for your poll app:

mkdir poll && cd poll

Copy the vote.html and results.html files you downloaded in the introduction into this directory.

Run the server

bialet dev

bialet dev starts the server from the current directory, enables live reload and the in-browser error display, and opens 127.0.0.1:7001 in your browser. It only needs to be run once — the flags are stored in the database and persist across restarts.

If you don’t need those development conveniences, plain bialet starts the server the same way without touching the flags or opening the browser.

On Windows, double-clicking bialet.exe in the project folder starts it in dev mode, just like bialet dev.

For now you’ll see a directory listing — we haven’t created any .wren files yet.

Using Docker

If you prefer containers, clone the Bialet Skeleton and use Docker Compose:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bialet/skeleton.git poll
cd poll
BIALET_DIR=/path/to/your/files docker compose up

Restarting

On Linux, Bialet watches .wren files and reloads automatically. On macOS, restart the server manually after changes (Ctrl+C then bialet again).

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