Zeltro › Run your Emergent app on your own machine

Getting an Emergent app running locally

Q: Can I keep using AI on it after moving it local?

Yes, and with whichever model you choose. zeltro ai starts an agent session in the project. Because you supply the agent, an existing Claude or ChatGPT subscription can do the work, or a cheaper OpenRouter model, or Ollama locally.

Emergent exports a real codebase — React or Next, FastAPI or Node, and MongoDB. Standing that up locally is more work than a plain React zip. Here is what the export contains and how to get it running.

Emergent is one of the more open members of the prompt-to-app category: it produces a real application you can download, and on the Standard plan and up the repository lives in your own GitHub account rather than theirs.

The catch is that a real application is more than a front end. An Emergent project is typically React or Next.js on the front, FastAPI or Node on the back, and MongoDB underneath — with Expo for mobile. Unzipping that and running npm install gets you a third of the way.

This page is about the other two thirds.

What you are dealing with#

Piece	Typically	What it needs locally
Front end	React, Next.js, or Expo	Node
Back end	FastAPI (Python) or Node	Python 3 with the right packages, or Node
Database	MongoDB	A running Mongo instance and a connection string

A single-language export — a Bolt or Lovable zip — really does run with npm install && npm run dev. A polyglot one with a database does not, and that is the gap people hit.

The manual route#

Worth knowing, because for a one-off it is fine and you should not install anything you do not need:

Install Node and Python 3 at versions the project expects.
Install and run MongoDB, or sign up for a hosted Atlas instance.
Create a virtualenv, pip install -r requirements.txt.
Work out which environment variables the backend wants and write a .env.
Run the API and the front end in separate terminals, pointed at each other.

None of it is hard. It is just five things that each have their own way of going wrong, and you repeat the whole sequence for the next project.

The Zeltro route#

Zeltro is a local development environment that already has those pieces standing. Python 3 and Node 22 are base images with the drivers compiled in, and MongoDB is one of the shared services every project can use.

zeltro clone work-directly https://github.com/you/your-emergent-app

That pulls the repo, detects the stack, creates the project, connects it to the shared MongoDB, writes the credentials into .env, and gives it a hostname. The app comes up at http://your-emergent-app/.

If you downloaded a zip instead of using the GitHub integration, point Zeltro at the unpacked directory:

zeltro setup your-emergent-app

The shared MongoDB is the part that saves the most time here, and it keeps saving it. The second and third app you bring over use the same instance — you are not installing another database or picking another port.

Once it runs#

You now have an ordinary project on your disk, so an agent can keep working on it. zeltro ai starts a session in the project directory with whichever agent you have configured — Claude, Codex, Gemini, Qwen or Aider — and Zeltro writes an AGENTS.md describing the project's URL, database and commands so the session starts oriented.

That is the actual reason to bring an app home: you stop paying per prompt to a platform and start using a subscription or a local model you control.

Being straight about this#

You may not need Zeltro at all. If your Emergent app happens to be front-end only, npm install && npm run dev is the whole answer and you should stop here.

Zeltro does not host. Emergent can deploy for you; Zeltro cannot. Bringing the app local means you are responsible for putting it somewhere when it is ready.

The export is Emergent's to define. What lands in your repository is up to them and their plans, and it can change. Check what your plan actually includes before assuming you can leave.

Nothing here is a knock on Emergent. Exporting a full codebase into your own GitHub account is more than several competitors offer, and if their hosting suits you, staying is a reasonable choice.

Questions

Does Emergent let me export my code?

Yes — Emergent produces a real codebase you can download, and on the Standard plan and above the repository lives in your own GitHub account. Verify the specifics against your plan, since plan terms change.

What database does an Emergent app use?

MongoDB, typically, with FastAPI or Node as the backend. That is why the local setup is more involved than for the JavaScript-only builders — you need a Mongo instance as well as a runtime.

Can I keep using AI on it after moving it local?

Yes, and with whichever model you choose. zeltro ai starts an agent session in the project. Because you supply the agent, an existing Claude or ChatGPT subscription can do the work, or a cheaper OpenRouter model, or Ollama locally.

Is this different from exporting a Lovable or Bolt project?

Yes, mainly because of the database and the second language. Lovable and Bolt exports are usually standard Vite/React and genuinely do run with npm install && npm run dev. An Emergent export brings a Python backend and MongoDB with it.

Do I need Docker?

Yes. Zeltro is Docker-based — Linux and macOS natively, Windows through WSL2. If you would rather not, the manual route above works fine, it is just more steps.

Checked 2026-08-22. Other products change often — if something here is out of date, tell us and it gets fixed.