Prerequisites

Required Tools

pnpm (Recommended)

The scaffolded template uses pnpm as its package manager. You can use npm or yarn if you prefer, but the whatalo.app.toml defaults to pnpm dev and pnpm build.

npm install -g pnpm

The Whatalo CLI

Install it globally:

npm install -g @whatalo/cli

Verify the installation:

whatalo --version

Alternatively, run CLI commands via npx whatalo <command> without a global install.

Required Accounts

Whatalo Developer Account

Register at the Developer Portal. Your developer account is separate from a store owner account — it lets you create and manage plugins.

A Development Store

Development stores are test stores connected to your developer account. They behave like real stores but are isolated from production data.

Create one in the Developer Portal under Dev Stores. You can have up to 3 development stores per developer account.

You need at least one development store before running whatalo dev.

whatalo dev creates a public HTTPS tunnel so the admin (served over HTTPS) can load your local plugin. The tunnel points to one local app origin that serves the iframe frontend and backend routes together. The CLI downloads and manages cloudflared automatically on first use — no manual installation needed.

If you prefer a different tunnel tool, pass the public URL with --tunnel-url:

whatalo dev --tunnel-url https://my-custom-tunnel.example.com

To develop without a tunnel (local machine only):

whatalo dev --no-tunnel

--no-tunnel means the admin loads http://localhost:5173, which only works if the admin itself is running locally.

Technical Knowledge

The default template uses:

React 19 — a standard React SPA
Vite — frontend dev server and build tool
Express — backend routes and webhook receiver behind the same tunneled origin
TypeScript — all template code is typed

You do not need to use React. Any framework that produces a web application (Vue, Svelte, plain HTML/JS) works — you implement the App Bridge protocol manually instead of using the SDK hooks.

Next Steps

Build Your First Plugin — step-by-step tutorial
Quick Start — the fast path if you want to jump straight in