Quickstart

Get a FlowForm form running in 15 minutes — from clone to working submission.

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.3+
• Composer
• SQLite (default) or MySQL/PostgreSQL

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/flowformhq/flowform.git
cd flowform
composer install

2. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

3. Set up the database

touch database/database.sqlite
php artisan migrate --seed

This creates the schema and seeds sample data (a demo form with steps and fields).

4. Create an API token

Start the server:

php artisan serve

Open http://localhost:8000/admin and log in with the seeded user. Go to the API tokens section and generate a token — you'll need it for submission endpoints.

5. Fetch a form schema

curl http://localhost:8000/api/v1/forms

Pick a uuid from the response, then:

curl http://localhost:8000/api/v1/forms/{uuid}/schema

The schema endpoint returns the full form structure: steps, fields, options, and conditions — everything you need to render the form on any frontend.

6. Submit a response

# Create a draft submission
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/submissions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"form_uuid": "YOUR_FORM_UUID"}'

# Save field values
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/submissions/{submission_uuid}/values \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"values": [{"field_code": "email", "value": "test@example.com"}]}'

# Complete the submission
curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8000/api/v1/submissions/{submission_uuid} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"status": "completed"}'

7. Try a starter kit

Skip building a frontend from scratch — use a starter kit:

# React + Vite
git clone https://github.com/flowformhq/flowform.git
cd starter-kit-react
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your FlowForm URL and token
npm run dev

See Starter Kits for Vue and Livewire options.

Next steps

• Core Concepts — understand forms, steps, fields, and conditions
• Conditional Logic — show, hide, and require fields dynamically
• Deployment Guide — production self-hosting with Docker
• API Reference — full endpoint documentation