Development

AppKit provides multiple development workflows to suit different needs: local development with hot reload, AI-assisted development with MCP, and remote tunneling to deployed backends.

Prerequisites

• Node.js environment
• Databricks CLI: install and configure it according to the official tutorial.
• A new Databricks app with AppKit installed. See Bootstrap a new Databricks app for more details.

Development flows

There are multiple supported development flows available with AppKit:

1. Local development: Run the development server with hot reload for both UI and backend code. This is the default development flow and is suitable for most use cases.
2. AI-assisted development: Use an AI coding assistant connected via the Databricks MCP server to explore data, run CLI commands, and scaffold your app interactively.
3. Remote Bridge: Create a remote bridge to a deployed backend while keeping your queries and UI local. This is useful for testing against production data or debugging deployed backend code without redeploying your app.

See also

• App management: Manage your AppKit application throughout its lifecycle using the Databricks CLI
• Architecture: Learn about the architecture of AppKit