The CLI and backend service are currently in beta. We’re actively improving the platform and documentation based on user feedback. Share your thoughts and feature requests on our GitHub Discussions page.
Installation
Create projects
Create new Base44 backend projects with thecreate command. You can choose from available templates to get started quickly.
See our quickstart articles for a detailed walkthrough:
Start from a Base44 app
If you’ve built an app with the Base44 app editor, the CLI gives you three ways to work with it.- Commands that don’t need a local project: Tail logs, run scripts, manage secrets, and set up connectors for any app you have access to. See Select a target app.
- The
sandboxcommands: Edit the app’s code where it already lives, with no local copy. See Work in the cloud sandbox. - A full local copy: Develop in your own IDE with the GitHub integration, or take a one-time copy with
eject.
Link existing backend projects
If you have existing Base44 backend project code, such as from an example app, use thelink command to connect it to a Base44 backend. For a step-by-step guide, see Link an Existing Backend Project.
Manage workspaces
If you belong to multiple workspaces, the CLI can target them directly. Create new apps in a specific workspace withcreate --workspace or link --create --workspace, and move an app between workspaces with workspace move. Use workspace list and workspace get to find workspace IDs.
Manage resources
Define entity schemas as JSON files, write serverless functions in TypeScript, configure AI agents, and set up OAuth connectors for external services. The CLI validates your definitions, reports what changed, and keeps your local and remote resources in sync.Inspect workflows
Check the health of your app’s workflows from the terminal. List workflows and their run history withworkflows list, or look at individual runs across the app, newest first, with workflows runs.
Develop locally
Start a local development server withdev to test your project on your machine without deploying. See the Local development guide for details.
Work in the cloud sandbox
Thesandbox commands work the other way around from local development. Instead of running your project on your machine, they connect to the app’s sandbox, the cloud environment that holds the app’s code and runs its development server. There’s no checkout and nothing to install, and writing a file is all it takes to save the change.
Explore the app with sandbox ls, sandbox read, and sandbox grep. Change it with sandbox write and sandbox edit, run builds and tests with sandbox run, and mark a known-good state with sandbox checkpoint. This is how you point your own AI coding agent at a Base44 app. It requires a Builder plan or higher.
Deploy your project
Deploy all your project resources to Base44 with thedeploy command. This pushes entities, functions, connectors, auth config, and site files in a single operation.
You can also deploy resources individually using entities push, functions deploy, connectors push, auth push, and site deploy.
After deploying, use site open to open your live site in the browser. Use visibility to control who can access your published app, or set it in config.jsonc to apply it on every deploy.
Configure authentication
Manage your app’s login methods from the command line. Pull the current config withauth pull, toggle email/password with auth password-login, toggle social providers (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple) with auth social-login, configure an SSO identity provider with auth sso, and push your changes with auth push. Auth config is also included when you run deploy.
Run scripts
Run standalone TypeScript or JavaScript scripts that interact with your app usingexec. A pre-authenticated SDK client is available as a global base44 variable, so you can access entities, functions, and integrations without any setup code. Pass --app-id to target a specific app, or run it inside a linked project to use the project’s app. Useful for data migrations, seed scripts, ad-hoc queries, and automation. See the Standalone scripts guide for a full walkthrough.
See also
- CLI Command Reference: All available CLI commands
- Cloud sandbox: Work on an app’s code in the cloud environment that holds it
- About the Base44 backend service: Learn about Base44 backend features
- Project Structure: How project files are organized
- JavaScript SDK: Connect your app to the backend