Get started with Crank

Crank turns an event from one app into a run for a person to review. Only an owner can select Approve and deliver. Creating a flow, receiving an event or importing a workflow does not send anything to its destination.

Open your workspace

From your Crank checkout, run:

Shell

rer dev

The first start can take several minutes. Keep the terminal open, open the private RER_OPEN link it prints, and complete Finish setup. Treat that link as a sign-in credential. Local development messages stay in the local outbox; they are not emailed externally. If the command times out, run it again to resume. Stop Crank with rer dev --stop.

For the clone command, installing the runner or setting up your own owner email, see Run it in the README.

Deliver your first event

The included Operations inbox is a separate receiving app. In a second terminal, from the same checkout, start it with:

Shell

npm exec --yes --package=node@22.20.0 -- node examples/inbox/server.mjs

Open http://127.0.0.1:9051. Messages are stored locally in .rer/inbox/inbox.sqlite. Keep its terminal open too; stop the inbox with Ctrl-C.

Open Flows at /app. Under Create a flow, enter Support follow-up for Flow name, Support desk for Source app, Operations inbox for Destination app, and http://127.0.0.1:9051/events for Destination URL. Select Create draft flow.
On the new flow, select Activate flow. Expand Prepare a run and enter ticket-1042 as the Event ID. For Event input (JSON object), enter:
JSON
```
{"customer":"Harbour Workshop","task":"Book a callback"}
```
Select Prepare for approval. On Run details, check the source, destination URL and Exact input sent on approval. Nothing has been sent yet.
Select Approve and deliver, then inspect Approval history and Delivery attempts. Refresh the Operations inbox to see the message.

Manual preparation lets you try the approval step before connecting a source. A source app uses a flow-specific trigger credential to submit events; it cannot approve delivery. An agent can prepare flows and runs for you to inspect.

What to do next

Flows and runs: pause a flow, reject a run and use one manual replay.
Access: invite people or connect a source or agent.
Move in from n8n: review a supported workflow before importing it.
Backup, restore and erasure: keep your data and preserve deletion records.

Your own receiving app must implement Crank's destination contract before you use it for deliveries.