fix: quickstart fails on Windows — missing DATABASE_STRING (#5719)

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

alembic/env.py

@@ -81,25 +81,20 @@ async def run_migrations_online():
     await connectable.dispose()
 
 
-print("Alembic mode: ", "offline" if context.is_offline_mode() else "online")
 if context.is_offline_mode():
     run_migrations_offline()
 else:
+
     async def async_main():
         await run_migrations_online()
 
     try:
         loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
     except RuntimeError:
-        # No running loop -> safe to start one
-        print("Alembic: no running loop")
         asyncio.run(async_main())
     else:
-        # Already running loop -> schedule task and await it
-        print("Alembic: schedule task")
         import concurrent.futures
 
-        # Use a ThreadPoolExecutor to run the async function in a new thread
         with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor:
             future = executor.submit(asyncio.run, async_main())
-            future.result()  # This blocks until completion
+            future.result()

docker-compose.yml

@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ services:
   skyvern:
     image: public.ecr.aws/skyvern/skyvern:latest
     restart: on-failure
+    extra_hosts:
+      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
     env_file:
       - .env
     # comment out if you want to externally call skyvern API

skyvern/cli/database.py

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ from rich.prompt import Confirm
 from skyvern.analytics import capture_setup_event
 
 from .console import console
+from .llm_setup import DEFAULT_POSTGRES_DATABASE_STRING, update_or_add_env_var
 
 
 def command_exists(command: str) -> bool:
@@ -122,6 +123,7 @@ def setup_postgresql(no_postgres: bool = False) -> None:
             console.print("✅ [green]Database and user exist.[/green]")
         else:
             create_database_and_user()
+        update_or_add_env_var("DATABASE_STRING", DEFAULT_POSTGRES_DATABASE_STRING)
         capture_setup_event("database-complete", success=True, extra_data={"source": "local"})
         return
 
@@ -134,14 +136,26 @@ def setup_postgresql(no_postgres: bool = False) -> None:
         return
 
     if not is_docker_running():
+        docker_installed = command_exists("docker")
+        if docker_installed:
+            error_msg = "Docker is installed but not running"
+            console.print("[red]Docker is installed but the daemon is not running.[/red]")
+            console.print(
+                "[yellow]Please start Docker Desktop (or the Docker daemon) and re-run this command.[/yellow]"
+            )
+        else:
+            error_msg = "Docker is not installed"
+            console.print("[red]Docker is not installed.[/red]")
+            console.print(
+                "[yellow]Skyvern needs Docker to run PostgreSQL. Please either:[/yellow]\n"
+                "  1. Install Docker: [link]https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/[/link]\n"
+                "  2. Or provide your own Postgres via: [bold]skyvern init --database-string 'postgresql+psycopg://user:pass@host:5432/dbname'[/bold]"
+            )
         capture_setup_event(
             "database-fail",
             success=False,
             error_type="docker_not_running",
-            error_message="Docker is not running or not installed",
-        )
-        console.print(
-            "[red]Docker is not running or not installed. Please install or start Docker and try again.[/red]"
+            error_message=error_msg,
         )
         raise SystemExit(1)
 
@@ -234,4 +248,5 @@ def setup_postgresql(no_postgres: bool = False) -> None:
             else:
                 console.print("✅ [green]Database and user created successfully.[/green]")
 
+    update_or_add_env_var("DATABASE_STRING", DEFAULT_POSTGRES_DATABASE_STRING)
     capture_setup_event("database-complete", success=True, extra_data={"source": "docker"})

skyvern/cli/llm_setup.py

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ from skyvern.utils.env_paths import resolve_backend_env_path
 
 from .console import console
 
+DEFAULT_POSTGRES_DATABASE_STRING = "postgresql+psycopg://skyvern@localhost:5432/skyvern"
+
 
 def update_or_add_env_var(key: str, value: str) -> None:
     """Update or add environment variable in .env file."""
@@ -42,7 +44,7 @@ def update_or_add_env_var(key: str, value: str) -> None:
             "MAX_STEPS_PER_RUN": "50",
             "LOG_LEVEL": "INFO",
             "LITELLM_LOG": "CRITICAL",
-            "DATABASE_STRING": "postgresql+psycopg://skyvern@localhost/skyvern",
+            "DATABASE_STRING": DEFAULT_POSTGRES_DATABASE_STRING,
             "PORT": "8000",
             "ANALYTICS_ID": "anonymous",
             "ENABLE_LOG_ARTIFACTS": "false",

skyvern/utils/__init__.py

@@ -34,6 +34,13 @@ def setup_windows_event_loop_policy() -> None:
 def migrate_db() -> None:
     # Import here to avoid circular import (config -> utils -> analytics -> config)
     from skyvern.analytics import capture_setup_error, capture_setup_event
+    from skyvern.config import Settings, _ensure_sqlite_dir
+    from skyvern.forge.sdk.settings_manager import SettingsManager
+
+    # Reload settings so env vars set by setup_postgresql() are picked up.
+    refreshed = Settings()
+    SettingsManager.set_settings(refreshed)
+    _ensure_sqlite_dir(refreshed.DATABASE_STRING)
 
     capture_setup_event("migration-start")
     try: