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Create New Powerhouse Project

Prerequisites
  • Powerhouse CLI installed: pnpm install -g ph-cmd
  • node.js 22 and pnpm installed
  • Visual Studio Code (or your preferred IDE)
  • Terminal/Command Prompt access

If you need help with installing the prerequisites you can visit our page prerequisites

To create a new Powerhouse Document Model Library project, you can use the ph init command in your terminal. This command will create a new project in the current directory. This command will create a new project in the current directory. You can run the command in the terminal window of your OS or you open the newly installed VSCode and run the command in the terminal window of VSCode.Make sure the terminal reflects the directory where you want to create the new project.

mkdir ph-projects
cd ph-projects

This essentially opens that folder and places you in it.

Once you've navigated to the directory where you want to create the new project and in your terminal, run the following command:

ph init

In the terminal, you will be asked to enter the project name. Fill in the project name and press enter. Make sure to pay attention to the capitalization of our name ChatRoom as it will influence your code generation.

you@yourmachine:~/Powerhouse$ ph init

? What is the project name? ‣ ChatRoom

Once the project is created, you will see the following output:

 The installation is done!

 You can start by typing:
    cd ChatRoom

Navigate to the newly created project directory:

cd ChatRoom

Once you are in the project directory, now you can run the ph connect command to instantiate a local version of the Connect application to start building your document model.

Run the following command to start the Connect application:

ph connect

The Connect application will start and you will see the following output:

you@yourmachine:~/Powerhouse/chatroom$ ph run connect

> Chatroom@1.0.0 connect
> connect --config-file ./powerhouse.config.json

Watching local document models at '/home/you/Powerhouse/ChatRoom/document-models'...
Watching local document editors at '/home/you/Powerhouse/ChatRoom/editors'...
  ➜  Local:   http://localhost:3000/
  ➜  press h + enter to show help

A new browser window will open and you will see the Connect application. If it doesn't open automatically, you can open it manually by navigating to http://localhost:3000/ in your browser.

Create a new document model by clicking on the DocumentModel button by the "New Document" section. The Gif below shows you where to click.

Create New Document Model

If you followed the steps correctly, you should have an empty document model created called ChatRoom.

In the next tutorial, you will learn how to design your document model and export it to be later used in your Powerhouse project.