Quickstart

What is Recursiv?

Recursiv is a complete backend platform accessed through a single SDK and API key. Instead of stitching together separate services for your database, auth, storage, AI, billing, and deploy pipeline, you install one package and get everything.

It works for developers writing code in their terminals, and equally well for AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) building on your behalf.

What you get with one API key:

• Managed Postgres — auto-provisioned per project, query directly from the SDK
• AI Agents — create agents with streaming chat, persistent memory, and tool execution
• Agent Swarms — coordinate multiple agents with task orchestration and shared memory
• Code Sandboxes — isolated compute environments with git, terminal, and dev server previews
• Deploy — ship to a live URL in one call, with preview and production environments
• Auth + API Keys — sign-up, sign-in, sessions, scoped API keys, rate limiting
• File Storage — bucket-based object storage with presigned upload/download URLs
• Transactional Email — send branded email, with inbound routing to agents
• Webhooks — receive events from external services, handler code runs in your sandbox
• Scheduled Jobs — server-side cron jobs that run in your project sandbox
• Usage-Based Billing — Stripe integration with metering, credit balances, and tier management
• Social Primitives — posts, communities, chat, profiles, follow graph
• Real-Time — WebSocket connections, live updates, SSE streaming
• Self-Hosting — deploy the entire platform on your own infrastructure

Install the SDK

$
npm install @recursiv/sdk

Node.js >= 18. ESM only. Zero dependencies.

Get an API key

Option A: Terminal signup (no browser needed)

$
npx create-recursiv-app my-app
$
# Prompts for email + password → creates account → saves API key to .env

Option B: Dashboard

1. Sign up at recursiv.io
2. Create an organization
3. Go to your org settings and click Create API Key
4. Save the key — it’s only shown once

Make your first API call

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import { Recursiv } from '@recursiv/sdk';
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const r = new Recursiv(); // reads RECURSIV_API_KEY from env
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// Provision a database
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const { data: db } = await r.databases.ensure({
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  project_id: 'your-project-id',
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  name: 'main',
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});
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// Query it
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const { data: result } = await r.databases.query({
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  project_id: 'your-project-id',
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  sql: 'SELECT NOW() as time',
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});
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console.log(result.rows); // [{ time: '2026-03-19T...' }]
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// Chat with an AI agent
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for await (const chunk of r.agents.chatStream('your-agent-id', {
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  message: 'Help me build a landing page',
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})) {
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  process.stdout.write(chunk.delta ?? '');
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}
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// Deploy a project
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const { data: deployment } = await r.projects.deploy('proj_1', {
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  branch: 'main',
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  type: 'production',
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});
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console.log('Live at:', deployment.deployment_url);

Try without signing up

The anonymous sandbox lets you run code with zero setup:

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const r = new Recursiv({ anonymous: true });
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const { data, meta } = await r.sandbox.execute({
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  code: 'console.log(1 + 1)',
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  language: 'typescript',
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});
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console.log(data.output); // "2\n"
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console.log(`${meta.remaining_executions} executions remaining today`);

No API key. No signup. 10 executions per day.

Choose your integration

TypeScript SDK

Full type safety, auto-retry with exponential backoff, SSE streaming, anonymous sandbox mode.

$
npm install @recursiv/sdk

SDK Reference

MCP (Claude Code / Claude Desktop)

Native tool integration for AI coding assistants. Your agent gets access to all platform capabilities through natural language.

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{
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  "mcpServers": {
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    "recursiv": {
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      "command": "npx",
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      "args": ["-y", "@recursiv/mcp"],
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      "env": { "RECURSIV_API_KEY": "sk_live_xxx" }
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    }
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  }
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}

MCP Setup

REST API

Standard HTTP endpoints for any language. Full OpenAPI spec available.

$
curl -X POST https://api.recursiv.io/api/v1/sandbox/try \
>
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
>
  -d '{"code": "console.log(1+1)", "language": "typescript"}'

API Reference

Pricing

Free to start with $5 in credits, no credit card required.

View pricing details

What’s next?

• Concepts — Understand how projects, agents, and organizations fit together
• SDK Reference — Full SDK documentation with all 40+ resources
• Build an AI-Native App — End-to-end tutorial: database + agent + auth + deploy
• Build an Autonomous Agent — Give an agent its own Postgres, memory, and code execution
• CLI — Scaffold, develop, and deploy from the terminal
• MCP — Give Claude native access to Recursiv via tool use
• API Reference — Full REST API documentation