Build with an agent

mantle help prints this page. mantle help <topic> prints one handbook page and ends with the commands for its next page and for every page it links; run those to read further. Topics are the handbook paths below (for example guides/native-admin) or their last segment when unique (native-admin). The installed package's docs/ is the source of every topic, so the text always matches the installed version.

Choose how much Mantle owns

You want	Do
A complete application	mantle init [directory], then follow its README.md. It writes the app shell once: Better Auth email OTP with admin and user, the Admin console, MCP for both roles, REST, and a member /sign-in page. Existing files stop it; --dry-run lists what it would write.
Only typed SQL and bindings inside an app you already have	Skip init. Write manifests and run mantle generate <target> <output-directory> <manifest>...; see mantle help project-and-cli and mantle help typed-queries.

init writes the cloudflare-d1 shell, the default target. bun-sqlite, bun-postgres and cloudflare-postgres generate the same bindings; their app entry is yours (mantle help service-entry).

init writes app code you then own; it never runs again. generate writes only generated/ and Wrangler build keys, and overwrites them on every run. When generate sees a selected surface (REST, MCP, Admin) whose generated module the app entry (--entry) never imports, it warns and names the topic that shows the wiring.

Build from a product brief

1. mantle init, install, then read the app's README.md and search for AGENT:.
2. Map the brief to the four atoms: Schemas, Views, Procedures, Triggers. Decide what each role (admin, user) does on each surface: Admin, MCP, REST and any visitor pages.
3. For each need, find the pattern in mantle help examples (the Combining table) and read that example's manifest and source. Examples are references: take the pattern into your own manifests; do not copy an example directory into the app.
   • Business rules (status transitions, approval thresholds, stock, guards, several rows that commit together) belong in SQL Procedures, not in handler code around separate writes: mantle help sql-patterns, and mantle help sql for the SQL each dialect accepts.
   • Visitor pages (anything anonymous and indexable) follow mantle help public-pages: server-rendered HTML, canonical and Open Graph tags, JSON-LD and an answer block on detail pages, Markdown alternates, /sitemap.xml, /robots.txt and /llms.txt. A brief that names a site, shop or catalogue for visitors includes all of them.
4. pnpm generate, implement every handler it lists, pnpm check, then pnpm smoke.
5. Before reporting the app or a feature done, run role-only acceptance (mantle help agent-workflow-acceptance). Scripted smoke is not acceptance. pnpm accept starts the app and hands each role to a fresh evaluator as a URL that carries that role's session.

The first verified sign-in with ADMIN_EMAIL becomes the admin. Further administrators are added in Admin: More → Administrators invites by email, and More → Members grants Admin to an existing member. Authentication documents the same operations as an API.