Quick Start

Get ContentAI running locally in under 5 minutes and generate your first piece of AI content.

This quick start assumes you have Node.js 20+ and pnpm installed. If you prefer npm or yarn, swap the commands accordingly.

1. Install dependencies

Unzip the package you downloaded, then open a terminal in the project folder:

cd ai-content-generator
pnpm install

2. Start the dev server

pnpm dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:3000.

No environment variables needed

ContentAI stores your API keys in the browser's localStorage. You don't need a .env.local file to get started — just run the app and add keys from the Settings page.

3. Grab a free API key

We recommend Groq for first-time users because it is genuinely free, fast, and has generous limits.

Go to https://console.groq.com/keys
Sign in (GitHub or Google)
Click Create API Key and copy it

Alternative free option: Google AI Studio — click "Create API key", then copy it.

4. Connect the key in ContentAI

Open the running app
Click Settings in the sidebar
Paste your key into the Groq card (or whichever provider you chose)
Select a model — we recommend llama-3.3-70b-versatile
Click Test to verify the key works

You should see a green "Connection successful" toast.

5. Generate your first content

Click Templates in the sidebar
Pick any template — try Blog Post to get started
Fill in the fields (Topic, Tone, Audience)
Click Generate

Your AI-generated content will stream into the output pane on the right. From there you can:

Copy it to the clipboard
Download as Markdown
Save to History for later
Save as Document to open it in the editor

Next steps

Understand the architecture

How ContentAI works under the hood with no separate backend.

Connect more providers

Add OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini for more model variety.

Explore all templates

Browse the full catalog of 35+ content templates.

Deploy to production

Ship ContentAI to Vercel in one command.