Rayfin Getting Started

Rayfin (Getting Started)

Rayfin is a Backend-as-a-Service: define your data model with TypeScript decorators and Rayfin provides auth, a typed data API, storage, and Fabric hosting.

This skill only handles getting started — getting you from zero into a working Rayfin project, then handing off. The moment you're in a project, the authoritative, version-locked skill at .agents/skills/rayfin/SKILL.md — alongside the rayfin MCP and rayfin docs — owns everything else: schema, auth, storage, querying, deployment. Load it and stop using this one.

Route, don't improvise

Rayfin's specifics are version-locked per project — schema/decorator syntax, the typed data API and client queries, auth, storage, and deployment all live in the project's own skill, MCP, and rayfin docs. Never answer them from memory; remembered Rayfin APIs are routinely wrong against the installed version. Get into a project, read .agents/skills/rayfin/SKILL.md, then follow it for version-matched signatures. The in-project skill file and the rayfin docs CLI are available the moment a project exists — including right after you scaffold one, in the same session. The rayfin MCP is an extra convenience that may only come online once the tool reloads the new project, so don't wait on it: lean on the in-project skill file plus rayfin docs.

Being blocked does not unlock memory. Only treat yourself as blocked if you can reach none of the version-matched sources — you can't read .agents/skills/rayfin/SKILL.md and can't run rayfin docs (e.g. tool permissions denied). The rayfin MCP simply not being loaded yet is not a blocker. When genuinely blocked, say you need those sources to answer accurately and stop there — don't offer a "general approach" or example code "in the meantime"; that stopgap is exactly the fabrication this skill exists to prevent.

Already in a Rayfin project?

Check this first — before scaffolding anything, even when the user says "build" or "set up a new app". A directory is a Rayfin project if it has rayfin/rayfin.yml or a package.json depending on @microsoft/rayfin-*. Environment signals alone are enough: if the workspace context shows either — even when you can't open the files yet — treat it as an existing project and continue in place. Never stand up a nested or sibling project.

• Already in one → load .agents/skills/rayfin/SKILL.md and use the rayfin MCP / rayfin docs. Stop using this skill.
• Existing non-Rayfin app here → add Rayfin in place with npx rayfin init (don't scaffold a separate project), then load the in-project skill.
• Empty directory → scaffold (below), then load the in-project skill from the project root.

Scaffold a new project

npm create @microsoft/rayfin@latest is a thin wrapper around rayfin init. As an agent you run non-interactively (stdin isn't a TTY), so use the npx -y form — npm create can mishandle piped stdin and strip flags, and --project-name is required non-interactively.

# Default: the Universal App, from the awesome-rayfin gallery. --template takes a
# template name or a git URL; --template-name selects one entry out of a repo that
# holds several, matched on the entry's display name. Keep this on one line: a
# trailing \ is a bash continuation, and agents run this in PowerShell too, where
# it fails to parse instead of continuing.
npx -y @microsoft/create-rayfin@latest --project-name <app-name> --template https://github.com/microsoft/awesome-rayfin --template-name "Universal App"

# Or add Rayfin into an existing/empty directory
npx rayfin init [directory]

# Templates bundled with the CLI (JSON), only if you need a different starting point
npx -y @microsoft/create-rayfin@latest --list-templates

# Bundled templates take a slug (e.g. dataapp, gettingstartedauth), not a display name
npx -y @microsoft/create-rayfin@latest --project-name <app-name> --template <slug>

Default to the Universal App unless the user asks for something else. It is a lean Fabric-authenticated React + Vite starter that grows into whatever the user describes: a capability router (AGENTS.md plus .agents/skills/capability-router/) maps the request to capability packs and pulls in only the Rayfin services, npm modules, and skills that app actually needs, covering auth, data modeling, storage, charts, and Fabric analytics. That means you don't have to guess a domain template up front, so prefer it over picking a domain template that merely looks close.

--template-name is not optional against awesome-rayfin. The repo holds a whole gallery, so omitting it aborts the scaffold and prints every entry, which is also the quickest way to see what else is on offer.

Mind the project root before loading the in-project skill: create-rayfin creates a child project directory (named from --project-name, slugified), so cd into it; an in-place rayfin init scaffolds in the current directory, so you're already there. Once at the project root, read AGENTS.md first when the template ships a capability router, then load .agents/skills/rayfin/SKILL.md for every version-locked Rayfin specific.