Initial Setup

Once EdgeDB has been installed using one of the methods described in the Installation section, a couple of initial setup steps are necessary in order to start using it.

To use EdgeDB you must first create an instance. An EdgeDB instance is a collection of databases that is managed by a particular running EdgeDB server. The data managed by the instance is usually stored in a single directory, which is called the data directory.

To create a new EdgeDB instance:

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$ 
edgedb server init <instance-name>

The server would then populate the specified directory with the initial databases: edgedb and <user>, where <user> is the name of the OS user that has started the server (if different from edgedb). Two corresponding user roles are also created: edgedb and <user>, both with superuser privileges.

By default, edgedb server init saves authentication credentials into user’s home directory. To use the stored credentials from a client, specify the name of an instance when connecting (we use my_instance in the following examples):

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$ 
edgedb -Imy_instance

In Python:

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import edgedb
pool = await edgedb.create_async_pool('my_instance')
await pool.query("SELECT 1+1")

In JavaScript:

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import {createPool} from "edgedb";
let pool = await createPool("my_instance")
await pool.query("SELECT 1+1")

If you are doing testing and don’t want to bother with passwords or other authentication, it is possible to override the default password authentication method with the Trust method:

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$ 
  
edgedb -I<instance-name> --admin configure insert Auth \
       --method=Trust --priority=0
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