C++ Quickstart

Get a SpacetimeDB C++ app running in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

• SpacetimeDB CLI installed
• Emscripten SDK 4.0.21+ installed
• CMake 3.20+ and a make/ninja backend
• C++20 toolchain (host) — build targets WASM via Emscripten

After installing the SDK, run the appropriate emsdk_env script (PowerShell or Bash) so emcc and the CMake toolchain file are available on PATH.

Install the SpacetimeDB CLI tool

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Install Emscripten

Use the official SDK (see Emscripten downloads) and activate the environment so emcc and the CMake toolchain file are on PATH. We recommend Emscripten 4.0.21+.

# From your emsdk directory (after downloading/cloning)
# Windows PowerShell
./emsdk install 4.0.21
./emsdk activate 4.0.21
./emsdk_env.ps1

# macOS/Linux
./emsdk install 4.0.21
./emsdk activate 4.0.21
source ./emsdk_env.sh

Create your project

Need manual control? You can still drive CMake+emcc directly (see spacetimedb/CMakeLists.txt), but the recommended path is spacetime build/spacetime dev.

spacetime dev --template basic-cpp

Explore the project structure

Server code lives in the spacetimedb folder; the template uses CMake and the SpacetimeDB C++ SDK.

my-spacetime-app/
├── spacetimedb/            # Your C++ module
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   └── src/
│       └── lib.cpp         # Server-side logic
└── client/                 # Client bindings (generated by spacetime dev)

Understand tables and reducers

The template includes a Person table and two reducers: add to insert, say_hello to iterate and log.

#include "spacetimedb.h"
using namespace SpacetimeDB;

struct Person { std::string name; };
SPACETIMEDB_STRUCT(Person, name)
SPACETIMEDB_TABLE(Person, person, Public)

SPACETIMEDB_REDUCER(add, ReducerContext ctx, std::string name) {
    ctx.db[person].insert(Person{name});
    return Ok();
}

SPACETIMEDB_REDUCER(say_hello, ReducerContext ctx) {
    for (const auto& person : ctx.db[person]) {
        LOG_INFO("Hello, " + person.name + "!");
    }
    LOG_INFO("Hello, World!");
    return Ok();
}

Test with the CLI

Open a new terminal and navigate to your project directory. Then call reducers and inspect data right from the CLI.

cd my-spacetime-app

# Insert a person
spacetime call add Alice

# Query the person table
spacetime sql "SELECT * FROM person"

# Call say_hello to greet everyone
spacetime call say_hello

# View the module logs
spacetime logs

Notes

• To use a local SDK clone instead of the fetched archive, set SPACETIMEDB_CPP_SDK_DIR before running spacetime dev/spacetime build.
• The template builds to WebAssembly with exceptions disabled (-fno-exceptions).
• If emcc is not found, re-run the appropriate emsdk_env script to populate environment variables.