How to apply your Enterprise License

Derrick Mehaffy

Modified on: Mon, 19 Sep, 2022 at 4:30 PM

If you have purchased an Enterprise Edition license, you will be given a long randomized key, this key is used to activate the features of your Strapi project the license provides.

Take note that under normal circumstances, you will receive a One-Time Secret link and a passphrase to access the contents of that secret (long randomized key, i.e your license). This link is only accessible once and valid for a minimum of 7 days. Please ensure you access it before the expiry date.

There are two key ways to install this license that will be detailed below:

Via an environment variable STRAPI_LICENSE
- Common use-cases
  - CLI/Terminal for testing / Local development
  - CI/CD Platforms with environment variable support
  - PaaS (Platform as a service)
Via a license.txt file located in the root folder of your Strapi project
- Common use-cases
  - Local development
  - Build platforms with file injection
  - Container registry platforms with file injection

Prerequisite

Have a Strapi project that is at least version 3.1.0 or higher. It's recommended to use the latest stable version when starting a new project.

1. Migrate your project

If you are using a version prior to v3.1.0, you can find migration guides on our documentation.

2. Install your license

As soon as your project is running in v3.1.0 or higher, you can install your license to use the Enterprise Edition.

2.1 Add your license

As mentioned above you can add your license by either using an environment variable or using a license.txt file

2.1.1 Using an environment variable

Once you have the license you just need to add it to your environment variables using the STRAPI_LICENSE variable. The easiest way is to create or edit the .env file as in the following example.

Example — .env

STRAPI_LICENSE=kOn1xJjkVNI1.....

2.1.2 Using a license.txt file

Create the file license.txt at the root of your project.

Example — license.txt

kOn1xJjkVNI1......

3. Rebuild the admin panel

This step is only required for Strapi v3 and the license needs to exist during the build so if you use the env variable you need to pass it in the build as well.

Strapi v4 no longer needs the license during the build and will read it from the backend.

Rebuild the admin panel with one of the following commands:

# Strapi v3
yarn build --clean
# or
npm run build -- --clean

# Strapi v3 using the environment variable method
STRAPI_LICENSE=... yarn build --clean
# or 
STRAPI_LICENSE=... npm run build -- --clean

# Strapi v4
yarn build
#or
npm run build

4. Check the license is correctly loaded

Launch Strapi with one of the following commands:

yarn develop
# or
npm run develop

In your terminal, in the project information table, you should see Edition Enterprise instead of Community. The project information table is a table that is rendered in your terminal by the Strapi CLI when you run a command to start the application. A screenshot of the project information table is shown below. Furthermore, you should login and test the Enterprise features your license enables to ensure the admin panel also was built with the license.

Your application is now running with the Enterprise Edition! If you have any questions, please do create a new ticket and we will address these as needed.

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