---
title: "Develop an App"
slug: "generate-project-code"
updated: 2025-05-29T18:27:20Z
published: 2025-05-29T18:27:20Z
canonical: "help.gladly.com/generate-project-code"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gladly.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Develop an App

## Initialize the Project

### Init app

Use the `appcfg init` command to initialize a new project.

```
appcfg init --app-name <your_app_name> --author <your_author_identifier> --description "<your_app_description>"
```

- **`--app-name` (required):**  A unique name for your application (e.g., `tutorial`, `my-first-app`).
- **`--author` (required):** Your author identifier (e.g., `yourcompany.com`, `yourname`).
- **`--description` (required):**  A brief description of your application. Enclose the description in quotes if it contains spaces.

**Example:**

```
appcfg init --app-name my-test-app --author mycompany.com --description "My test Gladly application"
```

### (Optional) Set the `GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT` Environment Variable

The `appcfg init` command outputs the `GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT` value, which is the root directory of your newly created project.

1. Copy the `GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT` value from the output of the `appcfg init` command.
2. Set the environment variable:

```
export GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT=<your_GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT_value>
```

**Example:**

```
export GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT=/Users/ela/gladly/projects/my-test-app
```

1. Persist the environment variable (important): If you are only actively working on one app!  To make this setting permanent, add the `export` command to your shell's configuration file (`~/.zshrc` for Zsh, `~/.bashrc` or `~/.bash_profile` for Bash).

```
echo 'export GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT=<your_GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT_value>' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
```

Be sure to replace `&lt;your_GLADLY_APP_CFG_ROOT_value&gt;` with the correct path. This ensures the variable is set every time you open a new terminal session.