Build with a Coding Agent

Firstlight is written to be built with by coding agents. The package ships a Laravel Boost guideline and two Boost skills, and its documentation is published as llms.txt and llms-full.txt. Together they tell an agent which screens to build from which recipe, which control to use for each value, and which mistakes to avoid.

Set up Boost

Install Firstlight as described in Installation, then add Laravel Boost to the application and run its installer:

composer require laravel/boost --dev
php artisan boost:install

Boost finds the guideline and skills in Firstlight's resources/boost directory and writes them into your agent's files, such as AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, and its skills directory. If Boost is already installed, pick up Firstlight with:

php artisan boost:update --discover

Run php artisan boost:update after each Firstlight update so the guideline and skills match the installed version.

What your agent gets

Resource	When the agent reads it	What it contains
Guideline	Always, as part of the agent's instructions	The rules every Firstlight screen follows, the six recipes, the screen generator, and a tested example
`firstlight-init` skill	When asked to set up or scaffold a Firstlight app	An interview, an install check, the theme, the native-chrome layout, and the chosen recipe screens with tests
`building-firstlight-screens` skill	When adding or changing a screen, form, list, or settings page	Which recipe to start from, which control fits each value, the workflow, and what never to do
`llms.txt`	When the agent needs a page	Every documentation page with a one-line summary
`llms-full.txt`	When the agent needs the whole reference	The full text of every documentation page in one file

The package also includes llms-full.txt at vendor/firstlightui/nativephp/llms-full.txt, so an agent can read the reference for the installed version without network access.

The guideline's rules

The guideline keeps an agent on the same path as the recipes:

Screens extend FirstlightUI\NativeComponent.
Controls are <firstlight:*> tags, with one Blade view for both platforms.
Navigation chrome comes from NativePHP: layouts return true from usesNativeChrome(). No custom-drawn tab bars, drawers, charts, or carousels.
Validation is Laravel validation, with $rules or a Form Request passed to $this->validate(). Fields show their own errors.
Destructive actions open a Confirmation Dialog and authorize in PHP.
Colours come from the NativePHP theme, not from markup.

Ask for an app

With Boost installed, describe the app rather than the controls. For example:

Set up this app with Firstlight. The main record is a job. I want a searchable list of jobs, a form to create one, and a settings screen.

The firstlight-init skill asks about the record, the recipes, brand colours, tabs, deletion rules, and locale one question at a time, and makes no change you have not agreed to. It then scaffolds each chosen recipe with a Pest test and runs the test suite.

For later screens, ask for the outcome, such as "add a screen to edit a job". The building-firstlight-screens skill picks the matching recipe, or starts from the generator:

php artisan make:firstlight-screen EditJob --form --test

What still needs a person

An agent can write screens and run their Pest tests. It cannot see the app on a device. Both skills end by asking you to run the app on an iOS simulator and an Android emulator and check navigation, field errors, and deletion on both. Check accessibility too. See Accessibility for what Firstlight covers and what your app still owns.