Run Purse on your computer

Purse is free and open source under the MIT licence. It needs Node 22 or later and pnpm 10.12.4, on macOS, Linux or Windows with WSL2.

Install rer

rer is the Run Edit Run command that installs, starts and looks after Purse. Install it once per computer:

curl -fsSL https://runeditrun.com/install.sh | sh

Or with npm:

npm install -g @runeditrun/rer

Get Purse and start it

git clone https://github.com/just-every/run-purse.git purse
cd purse && rer dev

The first rer dev installs everything, sets up a local owner and starts Purse. It can take a few minutes. When Purse is ready it prints two lines:

• RER_READY and the address Purse answers on, such as http://127.0.0.1:8787.
• RER_OPEN and a link that opens Purse signed in as the owner. Treat it like a password: it works only on this computer, and you shouldn't paste it anywhere else.

Finish setup

The first time you open Purse as the owner it shows Finish setup. Check the owner's name and email, tick I confirm this owner account is ready to use. and choose Finish setup. Purse then opens your purchasing workspace at /app.

Until setup is finished, the front page of your Purse shows Finish setup. Afterwards it shows Sign in.

Use your own email as the owner

rer dev on its own makes a local owner for trying Purse. To be the owner with your own mailbox, set Purse up first:

rer setup --owner-email you@example.com
rer dev

Sign-in links go to the local outbox; rer outbox prints its address. Purse sends no email while it runs on your computer.

Try it as someone else

Each purchasing capability has a local persona: requester, approver, buyer and receiver, at the matching @dev.localhost address. Save the person and their capability in Settings first, then start Purse as them:

rer dev --as approver

A persona with no saved capability can sign in but can't do any purchasing.

Stop and start again

rer dev --stop

Your data stays in the checkout. The next rer dev starts Purse again on the same port, with everything as you left it. To pick a port yourself, use rer dev --port 8790.

Check your copy

rer verify builds Purse and runs its checks. rer describe lists every command and flag this copy accepts, and rer doctor reports anything missing from your computer.