Appwrite Setup

Use Appwrite to turn Manifest projects into production-ready applications.

Overview

Appwrite provides turnkey backend infrastructure, available open source or cloud hosted with a generous free tier. Together with Manifest you can quickly generate feature-complete applications including user authentication, databases, and storage.

Appwrite Setup

Establish a project with any name and region in Appwrite. Once created you'll access the project console:

Credentials

Your Manifest project will need the Appwrite project's Project ID and API Endpoint to connect. Get them from the Appwrite project's general Settings, under API credentials:

Dev Key

An optional Dev Key can also be used during Manifest project development to bypass Appwrite's rate limits. It should not be included in production. Get one from Overview > Dev keys:

Manifest Setup

Scripts

Add the Appwrite SDK and manifest.js scripts to the HTML head. manifest.json is also required to register Appwrite credentials and data sources.

Appwrite plugins can be loaded in two ways: explicitly via the data-plugins attribute, or automatically when Appwrite credentials are declared in manifest.json. When auto-detected, only the relevant Appwrite plugins are loaded based on the credentials and data sources present. The supporting core data plugin will also be loaded whether or not it's declared.

<!-- Meta -->
<link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json">

<!-- Scripts -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/appwrite@latest"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mnfst@latest/lib/manifest.min.js"></script>

<!-- Meta -->
<link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json">

<!-- Scripts -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/appwrite@latest"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mnfst@latest/lib/manifest.min.js"
    data-plugins="appwrite-auth,appwrite-data,appwrite-presence"></script>

manifest.json

The Project ID and API Endpoint are public and safe to commit client-side — Appwrite enforces project-level access via its own permissions. The Dev Key is sensitive (it bypasses rate limits) and must not be committed. Reference it via ${APPWRITE_DEV_KEY} and put the value in a gitignored .env file. This pattern is also supported for the Project ID and API Endpoint if desired.

Add the Appwrite project credentials detailed above to manifest.json, under an appwrite property. These credentials are used by any other objects in the manifest that reference Appwrite, like database or storage sources.

{
    "appwrite": {
        "projectId": "your-project-id",
        "endpoint": "your-API-endpoint",
        "devKey": "${APPWRITE_DEV_KEY}"
    }
}

APPWRITE_DEV_KEY=your-appwrite-dev-key

Alternatively, credentials can be added directly into specific database or storage sources, declared within the data object.

{
    "data": {
        "projects": {
            "projectId": "your-project-id",
            "endpoint": "your-API-endpoint",
            "appwriteDatabaseId": "your-database-id",
            "appwriteTableId": "your-table-id"
        },
        "assets": {
            "projectId": "your-project-id",
            "endpoint": "your-API-endpoint",
            "appwriteBucketId": "your-bucket-id"
        },
        "other-content": "/local/whatever.csv"
    }
}

If credentials are declared in both appwrite and data objects, the data credentials take precedence for their own items.

Next Steps

After a successful setup above, your Manifest project should be paired with your Appwrite project(s). Proceed to configuring:

• Users or Teams
• Databases or Storage