Build App

This is the full linear workflow for spinning up a Butterbase backend: provision an app, design and apply a Postgres schema, lock it down with RLS policies, wire up OAuth, and deploy a frontend. It walks you through all seven phases with JSON examples for every tool call, including the dry-run-then-apply pattern for schema changes and test commands to verify your RLS isolation actually works. The docs note there's a newer guided journey skill that breaks this into stages with preflight checks, but this one-shot version is still solid if you want the no-frills path from zero to a deployed full-stack app with auth and database in one go.

GitHub stars: 532
last updated: Jun 11, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add butterbase-ai/butterbase-skills --skill build-app --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Prefer /butterbase-skills:journey — for a fully guided multi-stage build with preflight, planning, deployment verification, and (optionally) hackathon submission. This one-shot skill remains for users who want the legacy linear setup.

Build a Complete Butterbase App

This skill walks through all seven phases of building a production-ready Butterbase application — from provisioning a backend to deploying a live frontend. Follow each phase in order; later phases depend on artifacts (app_id, schema, RLS policies) produced by earlier ones.

Convention: every JSON body below is the argument object for the tool named in its Tool: header. When the header reads manage_schema with action: "apply", include "action": "apply" alongside the other fields when you make the call.

Phase 1: Create the App

Use init_app to provision an isolated backend with its own database and auto-generated REST API.

Tool: init_app

{
  "name": "my-blog"
}

Returns:

{
  "app_id": "app_abc123",
  "api_base": "https://api.butterbase.ai/v1/app_abc123"
}

Important: Save app_id and api_base — every subsequent tool call requires app_id.

SKILL.md on GitHub

Details

Repository: github.com/butterbase-ai/butterbase-skills
Categories: Backend & APIs, DevOps & CI/CD, Automation & Workflows, Design & UI/UX, Databases
License: MIT
First seen: Jun 11, 2026