How do I create an app that is ready for Boat House?

Run bh init. It creates a complete project locally: app files, boathouse.json, instructions for your coding agent, and a README with preview and deployment commands. It needs no login, makes no network requests and refuses to overwrite existing files.

Runnable team-app example

After installing the CLI:

bh init team-notebook --template team --name "Team notebook"
cd team-notebook
python3 app.py --local

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080 and add a note. Restart the preview: your note is still there. Local preview uses a synthetic admin and binds only to your computer. The sample data folder is excluded from deployment. Choose a fresh folder if team-notebook already exists.

The team template uses Python's standard library. On Boat House it verifies the gateway's signed identity, checks the timestamp, gives viewers read-only access and lets editors add notes. Form tokens protect writes. Notes are stored in SQLite inside the persistent DATA_DIR. Everyone with access to this notebook can read the same notes; add record-level authorization if your application needs more private data within a team.

A website instead

bh init company-site --template static
cd company-site
python3 -m http.server 8080 --bind 127.0.0.1

Edit index.html. Publish the website when ready.

The app format

boathouse.json starts with schemaVersion, slug and name. The CLI adds deployment metadata such as base and workspace after publishing; keep those fields so stale updates and workspace mistakes are caught. The slug selects the app, so changing it creates a different deployment target.

A static app has an index.html at the project root. A server app has a Dockerfile, listens on 0.0.0.0:$PORT (8080 by default), and writes persistent files only under DATA_DIR. Boat House provides DATABASE_URL for PostgreSQL and signed identity headers plus BOATHOUSE_SIGNING_KEY for authorization. Keep secrets in environment variables, never in client code or source archives.

There is no proprietary runtime dependency. You own ordinary Python/HTML/Docker source and can export your app and data. The templates are Apache 2.0 licensed.

Publish after preview

Stop the local server, connect your account and add hosting credit. From the app folder:

bh whoami
bh deploy

New apps are private by default. Share access, then verify with a second account before using real business data. Read the security limitations first.

Get started · Security and current limitations · Open-source skill