Installation

Requirements

• Node 26.12 or newer
• Vite 8.3 or newer, serving your pages through its HTML pipeline
• A Git repository with user.name and user.email set
• Google Chrome, or Chromium from npx playwright install chromium, for the canvas's screenshots

Install Bud

Bud is one package, @bud.sh/app: the app, its Vite plugin and the bud command. Install it as a development dependency:

npm install -D @bud.sh/app

Add Bud to Vite

Add bud() next to your existing plugins:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import { bud } from '@bud.sh/app/vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [bud()],
})

Create a config in the same directory:

import { defineConfig } from '@bud.sh/app'

export default defineConfig({
  name: 'My project',
  routes: ['/', '/pricing', '/blog/hello-world'],
})

Start

Run your usual dev command, such as npm run dev. The terminal prints a Bud URL next to your app's URL. Open it, and edit a page to see it update on the canvas.

Bud only runs during development and adds nothing to your production build.

Check what's set up

Bud shows only what your project has set up: without a task store there's no Tasks, without a discussion store no comments, and without a sandbox plugin no factory. To see what's there and what each missing piece needs, run the doctor in your project:

npx bud doctor

It lists tasks, comments, their sync and the factory, each with what it needs and a link to its guide.

What's next

• Choose your routes and the viewports the canvas shows.
• Set up tasks with Beads, so comments can become work.
• Turn on the factory: coding agents finish tasks in sandboxes, and nothing is pushed until someone approves.
• Host Bud on Cloudflare for your whole team, for a GitHub repository.