Get started with Pulp Engine

Docker is the supported evaluation path. A native Windows installer is also available in beta for trying the product without Docker. Full product, every feature unlocked. No credit card. No time limit.

Two evaluation paths. Docker runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is the supported path. The Windows installer is a beta convenience path for engineers without Docker — see the known-issues note on the Windows card before relying on it.

Want a feel for it before installing anything? The playground runs the real engine in your browser — no download.

Windows

Beta

Beta — for evaluation without Docker

Native installer. Ships Node and Chromium — no Docker, no WSL. Your data lives per-user in %APPDATA%\PulpEngine. For supported production-style evaluation, use Docker.

Download the Windows installer

Direct download · ~200 MB · SmartScreen heads-up below.

SmartScreen heads-up. Evaluation builds are not code-signed yet, so Windows will show "Windows protected your PC" on first run. Click More info → Run anyway. Commercial builds will be signed once a certificate is in place.

Beta — known issues. Windows installer runtime smoke is currently advisory in CI; the Linux Docker path is the supported evaluator route. See the installer known issues before relying on this path for a serious trial.

Run PulpEngine-Setup-latest.exe.
Start Menu → Pulp Engine → Open Editor — the server starts, the editor key is copied to the clipboard, and the browser opens.
Paste the key at the login screen. You're in.

What's in the installer

Installs to %ProgramFiles%\PulpEngine. Bundles Node 22 and Chromium — no extra prerequisites.
Data lives per-user at %APPDATA%\PulpEngine. Templates, assets, logs, and the generated .env are all there.
Auto-generated API keys on first install. Random 32-byte hex keys written to %APPDATA%\PulpEngine\.env; editor key also saved to editor-key.txt.
Start Menu entries. "Open Editor" starts the server and opens the browser. "Start" / "Stop" / "Data Folder" / "Uninstall" are also registered.
Binds to 127.0.0.1 only. Not reachable from other machines. Single-user evaluation deployment — not a production install.
File-mode storage. No database required. Postgres/SQL Server/S3 deployments live elsewhere — see the deployment guide.

Docker

Linux · macOS · Windows

Any OS with Docker

Tarball with a pinned compose.eval.yml, a bootstrap script that generates random API keys, and starter templates seeded into ./data/templates.

Download the Docker evaluation bundle

Direct download · small tarball · pulls the container image on first run.

curl -LO https://github.com/TroyCoderBoy/pulpengine-releases/releases/latest/download/pulp-engine-eval-latest.tar.gz
tar xzf pulp-engine-eval-latest.tar.gz
cd pulp-engine-eval-*
./bootstrap.sh            # Windows (PowerShell): .\bootstrap.ps1
docker compose -f compose.eval.yml up -d

# Then visit http://localhost:3000/editor/
# Editor key is in ./.env as API_KEY_EDITOR

Port 3000. The bootstrap script is idempotent — rerun it any time and it leaves an existing ./.env alone.

Evaluation builds watermark rendered output.

Every PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, and HTML export carries an evaluation stamp until a commercial licence key is set. Installer users: edit %APPDATA%\PulpEngine\.env. Docker users: edit ./.env in the extracted bundle. Add PULP_LICENCE_KEY=..., then restart. The token is an Ed25519-signed payload — invalid or expired keys log a startup warning and the watermark returns; a missing key runs in evaluation mode (info log). See Licence key format for the wire format and operator runbook.

See pricing →

Something not working? Email troy@tksolutions.co.nz (or copy the address: troy@tksolutions.co.nz) or read the docs.