# Get started without a publicly accessible database
**URL:** https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877
**Category:** Help me!
**Tags:** setup
**Created:** [February 17, 2025, 9:05am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877 "2025-02-17T09:05:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mderriey-makerx](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/mderriey-makerx)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 9:05am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/1 "2025-02-17T09:05:45Z")
## Feature(s) impacted
Getting started to test the product by running the agent locally without a publicly accessible database.
## Observed behavior
I’m being pushed to create what seems to be a cloud-driven project, and have no other options.
I managed by going to “Project settings” to get an environment secret, but it’s being rejected when I run an agent locally with the following error message: “Forest Admin server failed to find the project related to the envSecret you configured. Can you check that you copied it properly in the Forest initialization?”
## Expected behavior
I’d like to create a self-hosted project and be able to test the product.
## Context
- Project name: mderriey-sandbox
- Team name: Operations, which was automatically created
- Environment name: Development, I think
- Agent technology: Node.js
- Agent (forest package) name & version: @forestadmin/agent v1.59.2
- Database type: Postgres
- Recent changes made on your end if any: N/A
---
### Author:  [@anon62739609](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon62739609)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 9:55am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/2 "2025-02-17T09:55:23Z")
Hi @mderriey-makerx,
Yes there is only a public cloud installation.
But you can do a self hosted installation by using this link 😉
[https://app.forestadmin.com/mderriey-sandbox/onboarding?customHosting=true](https://app.forestadmin.com/mderriey-sandbox/onboarding?customHosting=true)
---
### Author:  [@mderriey-makerx](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/mderriey-makerx)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 9:56am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/3 "2025-02-17T09:56:28Z")
Thanks, that seems to have worked, I’ll continue the onboarding process.
Did I miss that link with the query string parameter somewhere, or is it missing from the docs?
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### Author:  [@mderriey-makerx](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/mderriey-makerx)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 9:59am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/4 "2025-02-17T09:59:20Z")
It seems I’m now blocked on this screen, where no matter which option I pick, clicking the “Next step” button doesn’t do anything (no network request visible in DevTools).
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### Author:  [@anon62739609](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon62739609)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/5 "2025-02-17T10:09:12Z")
It’s something we only share t people who don’t want cloud. Cloud onboarding is way more easier and less error prone than a self hosted onboarding. That’s why we suggest only the Cloud onboarding 😉
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### Author:  [@anon62739609](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon62739609)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/6 "2025-02-17T10:09:43Z")
Do you have anything in your console ? Any error or debug logs that could help me ?
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### Author:  [@mderriey-makerx](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/mderriey-makerx)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 10:11am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/get-started-without-a-publicly-accessible-database/7877/7 "2025-02-17T10:11:32Z")
I created a new project and went with custom hosting onboarding, and I seem to have gone a bit further now. I’ll let you know if I run into any more issues. Cheers.