---
title: "Starter"
description: "The minimal agent-native scaffold — agent chat, actions, application state, live sync, auth — wired up, with no domain code. Build from scratch."
---

# Starter

Starter is the minimum viable agent-native app. You get the six-rules architecture, the agent sidebar, the workspace tab, live sync, auth, and exactly one example action. Nothing else. Build from there.

<!-- screenshot:
  app: starter
  view: /
  shows: Blank-slate app with sidebar (Blank app brand, Home / Observability), centered "Blank app" card with Start building prompt button + quick-action tiles for Documentation and Theme, agent chat panel on the right
  account: screenshot-account (no domain data needed — starter ships with no seed schema)
  capture: 1400x800 viewport, cropped 90px from bottom (final 1400x710)
-->

![Starter scaffold with the agent sidebar and a clean blank-slate UI](/screenshots/starter.png)

Pick Starter when you're not sure which domain template fits, or when you want to learn the framework by doing. It is scaffolding for your app, not a launcher for more apps, so starter-derived apps should be renamed and reshaped into the actual product.

## What's in it {#whats-in-it}

- **Agent sidebar** (`<AgentSidebar>`) wired into `app/root.tsx`. Chat, CLI, workspace tabs all present.
- **Agent chat plugin** pre-configured so the chat actually talks to Claude (once `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` is set).
- **Auth** via Better Auth — login, signup, sessions, organizations. The same flow runs locally and in production; in development email verification is skipped so signup is just an email + password.
- **Actions directory** with one example (`actions/hello.ts`) and the `view-screen` / `navigate` standard actions wired up.
- **The framework's core tables** (application_state, settings, oauth_tokens, sessions, resources) provided by `@agent-native/core` at runtime — there's no template-local schema file to maintain. Add your own Drizzle schema when you define domain tables.
- **Live sync** (`useDbSync`) already wired so UI auto-refreshes when the agent writes to the database.
- **AGENTS.md** with the framework-wide rules the agent reads on every turn.
- **One example domain route** at `/` that says hi and renders the sidebar toggle, plus the framework-shared admin routes (Database, Team, Observability, Extensions).

## What's _not_ in it {#not-in-it}

- No domain tables (no emails, no events, no forms)
- No fancy UI — no dashboards, no lists, no charts
- No template-specific actions beyond the stubs
- No integrations (Slack, SendGrid, etc.)

That's the point. Ship whatever belongs to _your_ app, not someone else's.

## When to pick it {#when-to-pick}

- **Building a pure-agent app** — the kind where the UI is mostly "let me see what the agent did." See [Pure-Agent Apps](/docs/pure-agent-apps).
- **Learning the framework** — this is the smallest surface to wrap your head around.
- **An internal tool** with a unique domain that doesn't match any of the other templates.
- **A prototype** — ship the agent now, add real UI later.

Pick a domain template ([Mail](/docs/template-mail), [Calendar](/docs/template-calendar), [Content](/docs/template-content), [Forms](/docs/template-forms), [Analytics](/docs/template-analytics), etc.) when there's an existing product shape that fits.

## Scaffolding {#scaffolding}

```bash
npx @agent-native/core@latest create my-app --standalone --template starter
```

Or, in a workspace:

```bash
npx @agent-native/core@latest create my-platform  # pick "Starter" (pre-selected by default) plus any others
```

## First edits {#first-edits}

After scaffolding:

1. Ask the agent: "Add a data model for `notes` — a note has an id, title, body, owner. Render a list of notes at `/notes` and let the user create one."
2. The agent adds the Drizzle schema, the `create-note` and `list-notes` actions, and the new route. You watch it happen.
3. `pnpm dev`, navigate to `/notes`, add a note through the UI. Ask the agent "draft a note summarizing yesterday's standup." Watch it use your new action.

That's the loop.

## What's next

- [**Getting Started**](/docs) — the broader CLI + workspace flow
- [**Key Concepts**](/docs/key-concepts) — the six rules and what you get for free
- [**Actions**](/docs/actions) — the action system you'll add to
- [**Adding a Feature**](/docs/key-concepts#four-area-checklist) — the four-area checklist every new feature should update
