Frontpage
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Developers Quickstart

Developers

Quickstart

Install the Frontpage CLI, authenticate, link a site by subdomain, pull files, make a change, and review it on staging.

1. Create an API key

  1. Sign in at app.frontpage.host.
  2. Open the profile menu → Developers.
  3. Click Create key. Copy the secret once (fp_live_…). It is not shown again.

The Developers menu and key mint are on Scale and Enterprise. Only site owners who own at least one Scale (or higher) site can create keys. Keys are account-wide — anyone with the key acts as you on every site you can access. Site-scoped commands on Starter or Growth return 403. Treat keys like passwords.

2. Install the CLI

npm i -g frontpage-host
frontpage help

Or one-shot: npx frontpage-host help. The binary is always frontpage. Do not install the unrelated npm package named frontpage.

3. Log in and pick a site

frontpage login
# or non-interactive:
frontpage login "$FRONTPAGE_API_KEY"

frontpage sites
frontpage use <subdomain>

Use the subdomain column from sites (example: asimov-press), not a custom domain and not asimov-press.frontpage.host.

use writes .frontpage/state.json in the current folder with { slug }. You can also pass --site <subdomain> on most commands.

4. Pull files

mkdir my-site && cd my-site
frontpage use <subdomain>
frontpage pull

Pull downloads allowlisted files into the current directory: src/, public/, and content/. It also stores baseCommitSha for compare-and-swap on push. If you leave and come back. Or someone used the UI agent meanwhile. Run status --json / pull again before editing so you are not working on a stale tree.

5. Edit and push

# edit files under src/, public/, or content/
frontpage diff --json
# data.dirty / data.tipDrift; comparedWith is blobSha (one list request)
frontpage push --message "Clarify the hero headline" --wait

If push returns exit code 3, the remote tip moved or an agent run is active. Run frontpage status --json, pull or wait, then retry.

6. Review staging (not production)

# After the build finishes, open:
# https://<subdomain>.frontpage.host

frontpage open

There is no separate “deploy to staging” step for agents. Staging is the subdomain. Do not run frontpage publish unless you intend to promote to the custom-domain production site.

CI / non-interactive auth

export FRONTPAGE_API_KEY=fp_live_…
# optional override of API origin:
export FRONTPAGE_API_BASE=https://app.frontpage.host

frontpage doctor --json
frontpage pull --site <subdomain>

Verify connectivity

frontpage doctor --json
frontpage whoami --json
frontpage status --json