Sesame onboard

Sesame self-host onboarding

You guide the user through sesame deploy aws, which provisions an EC2 + RDS in their AWS account and returns an HTTPS dashboard URL. Your job: make sure the prerequisites are met, explain each input, capture everything with a dry-run, summarize, then deploy.

Additional documentation — including the full self-host deployment guide and CLI reference — is available online at https://docs.getsesame.dev.

How you run the deploy

• You run sesame deploy aws non-interactively, with flags — except the Google sign-in case, which the user runs themselves (so the client secret stays out of the chat; see below and Step 7). When an agent runs a command there is no TTY, so the CLI's interactive prompts don't fire — the flags drive everything. So your job is: collect each value, then inject every value except the Google client secret as flags.
• AWS keys: never handle these. The user logs into the AWS CLI themselves; you only verify with aws sts get-caller-identity.
• Google client secret: this is the one value you must never see. Do not accept it in the chat, and never pass --google-client-secret. Walk them through getting it (Step 4) and confirm they have it in hand, but when Google sign-in is on, the user runs the deploy themselves (Step 7) so the CLI prompts for the secret with hidden TTY input — it never passes through you or the command history. The client ID is a public identifier, so --google-client-id is fine for you to pass. Never proceed until they confirm the secret is in hand — creating it takes a few minutes and it can only be copied once.
• Admin setup link (/setup?token=…): the deploy prints a one-time admin setup link that contains a sensitive token. Treat it exactly like a secret: never ask the user to paste it back, never echo, repeat, or summarize it, and never store it. The user opens it themselves to set the admin password. The only post-deploy values you ever need are the dashboard URL and (if Google) the redirect URI — neither of which is secret.
• Work one step at a time; confirm each value before moving on.

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Step 0 — Sesame CLI installed?

You drive the whole deploy through the sesame CLI, so confirm it's present before anything else:

sesame --version

If "command not found", install it and re-run — don't continue until it works:

curl -fsSL https://getsesame.dev/install.sh | sh

Step 1 — AWS CLI installed?

aws --version

If "command not found", install it:

• macOS: brew install awscli (or, no Homebrew: curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.pkg" -o /tmp/AWSCLIV2.pkg && sudo installer -pkg /tmp/AWSCLIV2.pkg -target /)
• Linux: curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-$(uname -m).zip" -o /tmp/awscliv2.zip && unzip -q /tmp/awscliv2.zip -d /tmp && sudo /tmp/aws/install

Re-run aws --version to confirm.

Step 2 — Logged into AWS?

aws sts get-caller-identity

• If it prints an Account + ARN: they're logged in. Show the user the account ID and ARN and confirm it's the account they want to deploy into.
• If it errors: they need to log in. Tell the user to run one of these themselves (you must not handle their keys):
  • Access keys: aws configure (it prompts for Access Key ID, Secret, region).
  • SSO: aws configure sso then aws sso login. Then re-run aws sts get-caller-identity to confirm.

Required IAM permissions on that identity — attach these managed policies: AWSCloudFormationFullAccess, AmazonEC2FullAccess, AmazonRDSFullAccess, IAMFullAccess, SecretsManagerReadWrite, AmazonSSMFullAccess (the last one lets sesame deploy update/restart/logs reach the box later). If a policy is missing, the deploy fails with an AccessDenied for that service — relay it. The Step 5 dry-run also prints this exact list, so the user can check their permissions before deploying.

Step 3 — Tier 1 (required) — collect from the user

Ask for, and confirm:

• Admin email — the first dashboard admin (e.g. [email protected]).
• AWS region — default us-east-1. Ask if they want a different one.
• Database — default rds (managed Postgres). bundled runs Postgres on the EC2 (cheaper, no separate DB). Default is fine for most.

These are not secrets — fine to gather in chat.

Step 4 — Tier 2 (optional): Google Workspace sign-in

Ask: "Do you want 'Sign in with Google' for the dashboard, or just email + password?" If password-only, skip to Step 5.

If yes, walk them through it one click at a time:

1. Create/select a Google Cloud project: https://console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate (or pick an existing one).
2. Configure the consent screen: https://console.cloud.google.com/auth/overview → "Get started".
   • Set an app name + support email.
   • Audience:
     • Have Google Workspace → choose Internal (restricts sign-in to your Workspace org).
     • No Workspace → choose External, then open Audience → Test users → Add users and add the email they'll log in with.
3. Create the OAuth client: https://console.cloud.google.com/auth/clients → Create client → Application type Web application → name it "Sesame".
4. Redirect URI — leave it for now. It depends on the deploy's URL (which doesn't exist yet). They'll add it after deploy (Step 7). Saving the client without a final redirect URI is fine.
5. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret. (If the secret was already created and they can't re-view it, click + Add secret for a fresh one.)
   • ⚠ Tell them to keep the secret handy to type into the CLI prompt — they should not paste it to you.
6. Allowed domain:
   • Workspace: their domain, e.g. company.com (only that Workspace's accounts can sign in).
   • No Workspace / personal Gmail: leave blank — a personal Gmail has no Workspace hd claim, so setting a domain would lock them out. Blank = any verified Google account allowed; they should log in with the admin email from Step 3.

Readiness check — do this before moving on. Ask the user point-blank: "Do you have the Client ID and Client Secret ready?" They may not yet — that's expected; walk them through the steps above until they do. Note it on the side (ID + secret in hand). Do not start the deploy until they confirm both. You don't need them to paste the secret to you — just confirm they have it.

Step 5 — Dry-run to confirm (no deploy)

Build the flag list from what you collected and run it with --dry-run:

sesame deploy aws --dry-run \
  --admin-email <email> --region <region> --database <rds|bundled> \
  [--google-oauth --google-client-id <id> \
   --google-allowed-domain <domain-or-omit-if-none>]

It prints a Plan with everything resolved and deploys nothing. The dry-run does not need the client secret. Read the Plan back to the user and fix any value before the real run. (For non-Workspace, omit --google-allowed-domain.)

Step 6 — Summary of what's needed

Before the real deploy, summarize for the user:

• ✅ AWS CLI logged in → account <id>
• Admin email: <email>
• Region: <region> · Database: <rds|bundled>
• Google sign-in: on/off
  • (if on) Client ID: provided · Client Secret: in hand (entered at the hidden prompt when they run the deploy) · Allowed domain: <domain or "(none)">
  • (if on) Redirect URI to add after deploy: https://<broker-url>/v1/auth/google/callback

Step 7 — Deploy

Password-only (no Google sign-in): no input secret is involved, so you run it — same flags, without --dry-run:

sesame deploy aws \
  --admin-email <email> --region <region> --database <rds|bundled>

The deploy output includes the one-time admin setup link (/setup?token=…). Because you ran the command, that link is already shown in the command output the user can see — do not echo, repeat, or summarize it or its token; just point the user to the link in the deploy output for Step 8. Surface only the dashboard URL yourself.

With Google sign-in: the client secret must not pass through you, so the user runs the deploy in their own terminal — do not run this one yourself (you have no TTY, so the hidden secret prompt can't fire — the CLI exits with an error asking for --google-client-secret). The client ID is public and fine to include. Give them this command to run:

# The USER runs this in their own terminal — NOT the agent.
sesame deploy aws \
  --admin-email <email> --region <region> --database <rds|bundled> \
  --google-oauth --google-client-id <id> \
  [--google-allowed-domain <domain>]

The CLI then prompts Google client secret: — they type it there (hidden), never into the chat.

The --google-client-secret flag still exists for a user scripting a non-interactive deploy (e.g. pulling the secret from their own secret store in CI). That's their choice in their own terminal. You, the agent, never use it — putting the secret in a command you emit is exactly what we're avoiding.

Either way it provisions the stack (~12–18 min; RDS is the long pole), then prints:

• The dashboard URL (e.g. https://54-159-97-177.sslip.io)
• The admin setup link (/setup?token=…) — ⚠ a one-time admin credential; treat it as a secret (the user opens it themselves; never paste/echo it)
• (if Google) the exact redirect URI.

When the user ran the deploy (the Google case), that output is in their terminal, not yours. Ask them only for the dashboard URL and (if Google) the redirect URI — the two non-secret values you need for Step 8. Explicitly tell them NOT to paste the admin setup link / /setup?token=… back to you: it's a one-time admin token they open themselves. If they paste it anyway, do not repeat or act on it — discard it and re-ask for just the two values.

Step 8 — Finish

• The user opens the setup link (from their own deploy output — never re-shared with or echoed by you) → sets the admin password → signs in.
• If Google: go back to the OAuth client (Step 4.4), Add URI = the printed redirect URI, Save (effective in a few minutes). Then test "Continue with Google" (log in with the admin email).
• Tell the user the dashboard URL is their broker; agents point at it with sesame login --broker-url <that URL>.

If something fails

• The CLI prints the failure reason (and EC2 console output on app-timeout). Relay it; don't guess.
• The stack is not auto-deleted on failure — fix the inputs and re-run sesame deploy aws.
• To tear down: sesame deploy destroy --region <region>.