Tutorials

Step-by-step tutorials for developers. Each one builds something that works, explains why every line is there, and ends with ways to take it further. The code in each tutorial was run on Basehim 1.2.53 before it was published.

Not sure where to start? Build the announcement bar first: it covers the parts every app uses. If you're more interested in how the site looks, start with the theme.

Apps

• Build your first app: an announcement bar. A settings screen in the admin and a message bar on every page. You'll learn the manifest, boot(), admin routes, CSRF, settings and front-end output. About 20 minutes.
• Add a "Was this helpful?" widget with AJAX. Readers vote without a page reload, and editors see the totals. You'll learn content filters, your own table, public AJAX actions, input schemas and rate limits.
• Import an RSS feed on a schedule. New feed items become draft posts every hour. You'll learn scheduled tasks, outbound HTTP, declared permissions, the app log and a real cron job.

Themes

• Build a theme from scratch. A clean reading theme with menus, a sidebar, pagination, comments, an author box and a Customizer colour. You'll learn templates, partials, the data core passes in, and the helpers that handle SEO, dates and images.

API and AI agents

• Publish from a script with the REST API. A Node.js script that publishes Markdown files, with a category and a cover image, and updates them on later runs.
• Connect an AI assistant to your site. Connect Claude, or any MCP client, over OAuth or with an API key, with the right account and scopes.
• Give your app an MCP tool for AI agents. Expose your app's data to assistants with its own scope, and test it with JSON-RPC.

Before you start

You need a Basehim site you can add files to. A local install takes a few minutes: see Installation. For the concepts behind each tutorial, see the documentation.