Getting Started

Ship your first app in three steps: install the CLI, scaffold the project, package and submit. Chain Daddy hosts the compiled bundle; your source stays on your machine.

$ npm install -g @chaindaddy/cli
$ chaindaddy app login              # one-time: signs a wallet challenge → API key
$ chaindaddy app init widget alice-labs/yield-tracker
$ cd yield-tracker
$ npm install
$ npm run build && npm run pack && npm run sign && npm run submit
✓ Submitted alice-labs/yield-tracker@0.1.0 (submission id 01J5GA…)
✓ approved

That's it. No CDN to set up. No manifest URLs to hand-edit. No mystery review queue. The CLI does the build, packaging, signing, and submission. Chain Daddy scans, hosts, and approves.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• A registered developer account: sign up at chaindaddy.io/_developer and complete KYC (~5 min). KYC is required to ship apps; the CLI itself works without it.
• An active subscription (Developer or Partner) for app submissions.

Install the CLI

npm install -g @chaindaddy/cli
chaindaddy --version    # 0.3.0 or later

The CLI handles two concerns: ticker registration ops (chaindaddy create, chaindaddy profile, etc.) and app development under chaindaddy app ….

Authenticate

Two paths, depending on your setup:

Interactive (developer laptop)

chaindaddy wallet init        # create a local keystore (one-time)
chaindaddy app login          # picks a wallet, signs a challenge, stores the API key

The login command:

1. Asks Chain Daddy for a single-use challenge bound to your wallet
2. Decrypts your local keystore (asks for the password)
3. Signs the challenge with your wallet
4. Receives a cd_live_… API key in return, stored at ~/.chaindaddy/credentials.json (0600)

Non-interactive (CI, agents)

Generate an API key from the developer portal or via chaindaddy app key create, then export it:

export CROWN_API_KEY=cd_live_…

That one value serves as both the bearer for authenticated requests and the HMAC secret for signing .crown packages.

Scaffold

Pick your app type:

Type	What it is	When to use it
widget	A React component rendered on a token page	UI elements (charts, badges, dashboards)
headless	A webhook runner that reacts to events	Background tasks (alerts, integrations)
full	Both	UI + reactive backend logic

chaindaddy app init widget alice-labs/yield-tracker
cd yield-tracker
npm install

Project layout:

yield-tracker/
├── capp.json        # the app manifest (validate with `chaindaddy app validate`)
├── src/index.tsx         # widget root component
├── assets/               # icons, screenshots
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

The manifest describes the app, its id, version, the token data it consumes, and the permissions it needs.

The npm scripts in package.json wrap the CLI:

"scripts": {
  "build":    "chaindaddy app build",
  "validate": "chaindaddy app validate",
  "scan":     "chaindaddy app scan",
  "pack":     "chaindaddy app pack",
  "sign":     "chaindaddy app sign",
  "submit":   "chaindaddy app submit --watch"
}

Build, scan, pack, sign, submit

npm run validate    # JSON Schema check
npm run build       # esbuild to dist/bundle.js
npm run scan        # same security/size checks Chain Daddy runs
npm run pack        # produce dist/yield-tracker-0.1.0.crown
npm run sign        # sign the package with your API key
npm run submit      # upload, then watch the scan log

The submit step uploads a single .crown archive containing your manifest, bundle, runner config (if any), and assets. Chain Daddy:

1. Verifies the archive is well-formed and integrity-checked (every file is SHA-256 hashed inside the package).
2. Re-validates the manifest against the schema.
3. Runs the same security scanner you ran locally with scan.
4. Stores bundle.js and assets at apps.chaindaddy.io/{appId}/{version}/... with immutable cache headers.
5. Records the submission for human review.

You'll see scan events stream by in real time:

[INFO]  package_extract      extracted 142 KB package (sha256 8f3c…)
[INFO]  package_signature    signature verified (keyId=cd_live_…)
[INFO]  csp_scan             no CSP violations
[INFO]  security_scan        0 critical, 0 high, 0 medium, 0 low
[INFO]  accessibility_scan   score=98, 0 issues
[INFO]  bundle_size          bundle is 142337 bytes (uncompressed)
[INFO]  auto_check_complete  auto-check status: passed
✓ approved

A non-zero exit code means something failed:

Exit code	What happened	Next step
0	Submitted and (with --watch) approved	Done, your app is live at chaindaddy.io/apps/{slug}
1	User error (bad flag, malformed input)	Read the error message, fix the input
2	System error (filesystem, network, OS-level)	Check the environment, retry
3	Validation failure (schema, scan, server rejected)	Read the JSON details and fix
4	Auth failed	Re-run chaindaddy app login
5	Server error	Check status page, retry

Try it on one of your tokens

Before requesting publication, install your app on one of your own tokens for dev preview:

chaindaddy app tokens                                 # list tokens you own
chaindaddy app install alice-labs/yield-tracker --on 42
chaindaddy app preview alice-labs/yield-tracker --on 42
# open the URL printed above

Dev-preview installs are only visible to you. When you're satisfied:

chaindaddy app request-publish <submissionId>

That moves the submission into the human-review queue.

Add a headless runner

To react to platform events (price thresholds, schedules, app lifecycle), add a runner:

chaindaddy app init headless alice-labs/eod-snapshot
cd eod-snapshot

The scaffold includes a minimal Node HTTP server using the runner SDK. Deploy it to any HTTPS endpoint (Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda, your own VPS) and update runner.config.json with the endpoint URL.

For runner-specific guidance (idempotency, signature verification, retries, the Action API), see the Runner SDK reference.

Next steps

• App manifest reference: every field
• Widget development: props, themes, lifecycle
• Runner development: event handlers, the Action API
• Submission pipeline: what Chain Daddy does with your package
• Event reference: all platform event types
• Security model: sandbox, signing, permission scopes

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
auth: no developer token found	Not logged in, env vars unset	chaindaddy app login or export CROWN_API_KEY
PACKAGE_TOO_LARGE	.crown > 8 MB	Trim assets; bundle without source maps
PACKAGE_BUNDLE_HASH_MISMATCH	Manifest edited after pack	Re-run pack and sign
KYC verification is required	Account not KYC'd	Complete KYC at chaindaddy.io/_developer
active developer subscription required	Free tier; submissions need a paid plan	Upgrade at chaindaddy.io/_developer
Submission stuck at pending for >5 min	Auto-checks queued behind other work	chaindaddy app logs <id> --follow to see live progress