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Version: 2026.1

Skeleton Installation

The skeleton is a minimal Pimcore project for building from scratch. It already includes Pimcore Studio and ships a ready-to-run Docker environment, so you can get a working instance in four steps.

Installation​

1. Create the project​

docker run -u `id -u`:`id -g` --rm -v `pwd`:/var/www/html pimcore/pimcore:php8.5-latest composer create-project pimcore/skeleton --no-scripts my-project
cd my-project/

2. Start the services​

Match the container user to your local user, then start everything:

sed -i "s|user: '1000:1000'|user: '$(id -u):$(id -g)'|g" docker-compose.yaml
docker compose up -d

3. Run the installer​

docker compose exec php vendor/bin/pimcore-install --install-profile='App\Installer\SkeletonProfile'

The skeleton's .env already holds every connection and credential, so the installer only prompts for a product key (product registration is mandatory — it prints a registration link). Everything else, including building the search index, runs automatically.

4. Open Pimcore​

caution

The shipped credentials and secrets are insecure development placeholders. Change them before any shared or production deployment — see Production hardening below.

Additional Information​

What's pre-configured​

The committed docker-compose.yaml defines every service Pimcore needs — PHP, Nginx, MariaDB, Redis, RabbitMQ, OpenSearch (plus OpenSearch Dashboards), Mercure, and a Supervisord service that runs the messenger workers. The matching configuration ships too (.env, the .docker/ files, and the YAML under config/), so the OpenSearch client, security firewall, Mercure, and messenger transports are already wired up. You do not need to add or configure these yourself.

caution

Do not replace the bundled opensearch and mercure containers with definitions from other guides — .env and config/ are wired to the bundled ones. In particular, the bundled OpenSearch runs with the security plugin enabled over HTTPS (PIMCORE_OPENSEARCH_DSN=opensearch://admin:...@opensearch:9200?ssl=true&ssl_verify=false). Swapping in a plain-HTTP OpenSearch breaks installation and indexing.

What the installer does​

Because .env already provides the database, OpenSearch, RabbitMQ, Mercure, admin, and application-secret values, the installer validates them (connecting to the database, pinging OpenSearch) instead of prompting, then:

  • Writes the resolved configuration to .env.local
  • Installs and registers the profile's bundles and their assets
  • Creates the database schema and the admin user
  • Runs all post-install commands, including building the search index

For non-interactive (CI) installs, provide the product-registration values as environment variables and add --no-interaction. See Advanced Installation Topics for the full list of environment variables, and Pimcore Studio Setup to understand or customize the Studio configuration.

Default credentials and product registration​

The default login is admin / admin (from PIMCORE_ADMIN_USER / PIMCORE_ADMIN_PASSWORD in .env). Because they are pre-set, the installer does not ask you to choose them; to be prompted instead, remove those two lines before installing.

Product registration is mandatory. The installer auto-generates the instance identifier and encryption secret and prompts only for the product key. See Product Registration.

Rebuilding the search index​

The index is built during installation. To rebuild it later (for example after changing the index configuration):

docker compose exec php bin/console generic-data-index:update:index -r

The -r flag recreates the indices from scratch; the Supervisord service keeps them up to date as you create and edit elements.

Production hardening​

The skeleton is configured for local development. Before deploying anywhere shared or public, replace all placeholder secrets with strong, private values — the admin login (admin / admin), the database and OpenSearch passwords, the Mercure JWT key (CHANGE_ME_...), and the APPLICATION_SECRET. Once you use a trusted certificate, also drop ssl_verify=false from the OpenSearch DSN.

First steps in Studio​

A fresh skeleton has no homepage document, so http://localhost shows the built-in example page. Create your first document in Studio to replace it — see Create a First Project.