About the Wix CLI for Apps

The Wix CLI for Apps is a tool for building Wix Apps using commands in the terminal. It's a more streamlined alternative to building apps solely in the app dashboard. It allows you to focus on your own business logic without having to think about how to integrate your app into the Wix dev platform. The Wix CLI for Apps is the same tool that Wix's own developers use to create Wix Apps.

Start Developing

Familiar, streamlined development

The CLI provides you with a familiar developer experience including all the tooling and building blocks needed to create powerful apps, with minimal setup and configuration.

It allows you to:

• Define extensions with the Wix look and feel using TypeScript, React components, and the Wix Design System.
• Use Javascript SDKs to call Wix APIs as a simpler alternative to REST.
• Host your app on Wix's servers by default.
• Make calls on the client side that you could only normally do on the backend. This simplifies your code, removes the need for authentication, and in some cases, removes the need for your own backend.

Local preview

The CLI provides a local development environment for previewing your app as you develop it. It allows you to open the different parts of your app on a development site in your browser, and see how your local code integrates with the Wix ecosystem.

Development sites are premium sites provided by Wix where you can test your app during development. These sites offer more functionality than standard Wix sites and more flexibility for testing your app's functionality. You can have up to five development sites at a time. Development sites are owned by Wix and intended solely for app testing.

The local preview environment is set up for hot reloading, so any changes you make to your code are immediately reflected in the browser.

You can also make a preview version of your app to share with your teammates. This preview version is created using your local files, without creating an app version in the app dashboard.

Easier and richer extensions

The CLI's generate command makes adding extensions to your app easier, faster, and more structured.

Some extensions have a much richer experience in the CLI. For example, the embedded script extension has more placement options, and the option to override dynamic parameter values in testing.

Get started

• To get up and running as quickly as possible, check out our Quick Start article.
• To see how to build a fully functioning example app, check out our Example App Walkthrough.
• To see fully functioning examples of different kinds of CLI apps, visit our example templates page.