Scaffold Application

Scaffold Application

When to Use

Use this skill when the user asks to create a brand-new Kratos application under applications/.

Procedure

1. Do not hand-write the skeleton. kratos/python_scripts/application_generator/ already generates it: createApplication.py (and laplacian_application_example.py) show the ApplicationGenerator API — AddVariables(...), AddElements(...), AddConditions(...), then .Generate().

2. Copy one of those scripts, set the application name and the requested variables/elements/ conditions, and run it (python <your_script>.py) from kratos/python_scripts/application_generator/. This produces the full applications/<ApplicationName>/ tree: CMakeLists.txt, application header/source, variables header, pybind module, and test suite stub.

3. Register the application for the build. Applications are not wired into the root CMakeLists.txt — it only loops over the KRATOS_APPLICATIONS environment variable (CMakeLists.txt:713-730) and calls add_subdirectory for each entry. Add the new application's path to KRATOS_APPLICATIONS in build/configure.sh (or .bat).

4. Review the generated files against a small existing application (e.g. ConvectionDiffusionApplication) if anything looks off, and fill in real Elements/Conditions/Processes in place of the generator's placeholders.

5. Summary — report the files generated, the KRATOS_APPLICATIONS entry added, and remind the user to rebuild via scripts/standard_configure.* and to add the application to the CI JSON files under .github/workflows/ if it needs CI coverage.