Getting Started

Looking for the product view?

The Help Center explains this surface as users see it: Apps for developers.

This guide walks you through setting up your local development environment and deploying your first Magic App.

Quick Start

Three steps. Claude does the rest.

# 1. Make a directory for your app and cd into it
mkdir my-app && cd my-app

# 2. Open Claude Code in this directory
claude

3. Tell Claude what you want to build — for example:

"I want to build a Magic App that shows our top customers by revenue."

Claude will load the magic-apps skill, ask any clarifying questions (app name, which datasets/queries to use, AI features needed), and run the bootstrap sequence for you (scaffold Vite, install @entrinsik/vite-plugin-informer, run npx informer-init, draft informer.yaml with the right dependencies: slots). You don't have to remember the commands.

First time on this machine?

If the informer plugin isn't installed yet, add it once:

# Inside Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add entrinsik-org/claude-plugins
/plugin install informer@entrinsik-plugins

This installs the magic-apps skill (invoked as /informer:magic-apps), which Claude auto-loads whenever you mention Magic Apps, Informer, or related concepts. You don't need to re-install per project.

Already have the older magic-reports plugin? Replace it:

/plugin uninstall magic-reports@entrinsik-plugins
/plugin install informer@entrinsik-plugins

What Claude Sets Up

The bootstrap creates a standard Vite project plus the Informer plugin and scaffolding. After it finishes you'll have:

my-app/
├── .env                    # Connection settings (not committed)
├── .env.example            # Template for connection settings
├── informer.yaml           # App configuration (dependencies, roles, agents, widgets)
├── package.json            # Project metadata + informer section
├── vite.config.js          # Vite config with informer() plugin
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg         # App icon (512x512, duotone recommended)
├── index.html              # Main HTML file
├── main.js                 # Entry point
├── styles.css              # Styles
├── server/                 # Server-side route handlers (optional)
│   └── index.js            # Example: GET / handler
└── migrations/             # SQL migration files (optional)
    └── 001-create-table.sql

App Configuration (informer.yaml)

The informer.yaml file declares the data your app depends on, custom roles, agents, and dashboard widgets. Without dependencies: or access:, all API access is blocked when the app runs in Informer.

# informer.yaml

# Typed slots — installer binds these at first deploy (or the
# manifest's defaultBinding does it automatically). Slot names
# are referenced from handler code as `context.<slot>.<method>()`.
dependencies:
  sales:
    target: dataset
    defaultBinding: 7d5a9b1e-0c83-4bde-9e2a-3a4b5c6d7e8f
  monthly_summary:
    target: query
    defaultBinding: 9a8b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-fedcba987654

roles:
  - id: viewer
    name: Viewer
    description: Read-only access to dashboards
  - id: approver
    name: Approver
    description: Can approve submitted items

Looking up defaultBinding UUIDs

defaultBinding accepts UUIDs only. Find them via the resource's list endpoint — e.g. GET /api/datasets-list returns each dataset's UUID and configId. The deploy validator rejects non-UUID values with a clear error.

See the informer.yaml Reference for the full format, including row-level security, credential injection, the legacy access: block, and the one-shot route to modernize older access:-only apps.

Configure Connection

Edit .env with your Informer instance URL and credentials:

# Informer connection settings
INFORMER_URL=http://localhost:3000

# Option 1: API Key (recommended)
INFORMER_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Option 2: Basic auth
# INFORMER_USER=admin
# INFORMER_PASS=yourpassword

The Vite plugin uses these settings to proxy /api/* requests during local development.

Package.json Configuration

The informer section in package.json controls deployment metadata:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "informer": {
    "name": "My App",
    "description": "A custom Magic App",
    "id": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-123456789abc"
  }
}

Field	Description
name	Display name in Informer (falls back to package name)
description	App description
id	App UUID (auto-generated and saved after first deploy)
icon	Material icon name for the app (e.g., "bar_chart")

Your First Prompt

Now that your environment is set up, you can ask Claude Code to build your first app. Open Claude Code and try this:

Prompt:

"Build me a simple sales dashboard. Query the admin:sales-data dataset and show total revenue, order count, and average order value as metric cards. Add the dataset as a dependencies: slot in informer.yaml. Use React with clean, modern styling."

Claude will:

1. Create the HTML structure with metric card layout
2. Write JavaScript to call the typed dep proxy (e.g. context.sales.search(...))
3. Add styling with theme support (light/dark)
4. Add a dependencies: slot for the dataset in informer.yaml (resolving defaultBinding via GET /api/datasets-list)
5. Set window.informerReady = true when data loads (for PDF export)

React is the default. You can ask for a different framework or styling:

• "Use TypeScript" (Claude uses the react-ts template)
• "Build it with Vue 3 and Tailwind CSS"
• "Use Svelte"
• "Keep it vanilla JS with ECharts for charts"

The code examples in this guide show what Claude generates when you prompt it. You don't need to copy-paste — just describe what you want and let Claude build it.

Local Development

Start the development server:

npm install
npm run dev

This launches Vite with:

• Hot reload for instant feedback
• API proxy to your Informer server (with automatic auth)
• window.__INFORMER__ context mock (app ID, theme, etc.)
• Server route middleware (files in server/ are executed locally)

Your app will be available at http://localhost:5173 (or the next available port).

Iterating with Claude

Don't like something? Just tell Claude:

• "The chart colors don't match our brand — use #4f46e5 for primary"
• "Add a date range filter above the metrics"
• "Make the layout responsive for mobile"
• "Change the font to Inter"

Claude will update the code based on your feedback.

Theme Support

The Vite plugin injects a mock window.__INFORMER__ object during development:

window.__INFORMER__ = {
  report: { id: 'dev-local', name: 'Local Development' },
  theme: 'light'
}

To test dark mode, override in vite.config.js:

import informer from '@entrinsik/vite-plugin-informer';

export default {
  plugins: [informer({ mock: { theme: 'dark' } })]
};

In your code, respond to the theme:

const theme = window.__INFORMER__?.theme || 'light';
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', theme);

:root { --bg: #ffffff; --text: #1a1a1a; }
[data-theme="dark"] { --bg: #1e1e1e; --text: #e0e0e0; }
body { background: var(--bg); color: var(--text); }

Deploy to Informer

Build and deploy your app:

npm run deploy

This builds your project and uploads it to Informer. See Deployment for the full pipeline details.

Your app will be available at:

https://your-instance.entrinsik.com/api/apps/{owner}:{slug}/view

The deploy command saves the app UUID to package.json (informer.id) after the first deployment. This ensures subsequent deploys update the same app.

App Icon

Place a favicon.svg in your public/ directory. It will be deployed to the app's library root and used as:

• App gallery icon - Shown in desktop and mobile app galleries
• Browser tab favicon - Shown when the app is viewed in a browser

Icon Guidelines

• 512x512 viewBox, square (1:1 aspect ratio)
• Duotone style - One hue with full opacity for primary shapes, ~35% for secondary
• Self-contained background - Bake the background color into the SVG with rounded corners (rx="96")
• Bold, simple shapes - Recognizable at 70px (mobile icon size)

Example duotone icon:

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512">
  <!-- Background with rounded corners -->
  <rect width="512" height="512" rx="96" fill="#064e3b"/>
  <!-- Secondary elements at 35% opacity -->
  <rect x="96" y="240" width="64" height="152" rx="10" fill="#6ee7b7" opacity="0.35"/>
  <!-- Primary elements at full opacity -->
  <rect x="176" y="160" width="64" height="232" rx="10" fill="#6ee7b7"/>
</svg>

Next Steps

Now that you have a working development environment, continue to KPI Dashboard to build your first data-driven app.