app-sdk-concepts

app-sdk-concepts is an onboarding and scaffolding guide for the grafana-app-sdk, a CLI plus Go library for building schema-centric apps on the Grafana App Platform. It solves the problem of getting started correctly by explaining installation, project initialization per deployment mode, project layout, and the schema-driven development loop where CUE kinds generate Go and TypeScript code that reconcilers and admission logic build on. It is licensed Apache-2.0.

The skill documents the core workflows: installing the CLI with go install and verifying the version, running project init for a standalone operator or a grafana/apps-style app inside the Grafana repo, adding operator or frontend scaffolding, and the end-to-end loop of init, kind add, editing CUE, running generate, and implementing logic. It presents a one-line deployment-mode comparison table (standalone operator, grafana/apps in-process, frontend-only) and points to a set of reference files covering the full CLI command surface, project structure, SpecificConfig for env-driven configuration, deployment modes, and local development with Tilt and k3d. Guidance emphasizes rerunning generate after every CUE change and never hand-editing generated files.

It targets Go developers and platform engineers building Grafana App Platform apps, operators, or apps that live inside the Grafana repository. Prerequisites are a Go toolchain and the grafana-app-sdk CLI; the documented commands are standard developer tooling (go install, scaffolding, code generation, local k3d dev environments).