Build in the Browser
Create a café app in the dashboard, publish it and set it up, with no local install.
You'll end with Lamp Coffee, a café app that sells at the counter and takes table bookings,
live at lamp-coffee.stardeck.site and set up with the café's name. You'll sign in to it as its
owner and land on its admin home. Then you'll ask Starcat Developer for your first change.
We recommend building with your own coding agent, such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor: see the Quickstart. Use this page if you can't install anything locally. Already built a prototype elsewhere? Create the app here first, then bring the prototype in.
Before you begin
- A Stardeck account in an organization. Sign in at stardeck.ai/dashboard.
- Developer mode, which is on unless an admin turned it off. See the first step.
Create and publish the app
Find New App in the sidebar
Open stardeck.ai/dashboard. New App sits at the bottom of the sidebar.
New App appears only in developer mode. Developer mode shows the tools for building apps: New App, each app's Build and Code tabs, previews, sandboxes and developer settings. New organizations have it on. If you don't see New App, an admin has switched the organization to the simpler mode for people who only use its apps. Ask them to turn on Developer mode in Settings → General, or turn on Show developer mode for me always in Settings → Preferences to keep it for yourself.
Name it Lamp Coffee
Click New App. In Create New App, type Lamp Coffee in Name. The Slug fills in
from the name. It must be free, and it becomes the app's address:
lamp-coffee.stardeck.site. Every new app is public. To limit who can open it later, see
App Visibility.
Pick Booking and add the Register
Under Start with, choose Booking. Under Add to the pack, tick Register, the counter POS. The line below lists every Module this turns on. You can turn Modules on or off later.
Leave the other choices as they are
- Build mode: Real app. Prototype builds a click-through demo with mocked data.
- Make it live right away: ticked.
- Data stores: each store the app needs is listed as New, from [store name]. You can rename it. Add more stores after creation.
Click Create App and watch it go live
Stardeck creates the app, then publishes it. The screen moves through Creating Lamp Coffee and Publishing Lamp Coffee (usually a few minutes) to Lamp Coffee is live, then opens the app. If it doesn't open, click Open live app now.
Unticked Make it live right away? Stardeck opens the builder instead, and you publish later. See Publishing & Deployment.
Set up the café
A new app stays closed until its owner sets it up. Until then, every page sends visitors to a sign-in page that says This app isn't set up yet.
Sign in as the owner
Click Sign in and sign in with your Stardeck account. You land on Let's set up your business.
Choose Set up my business
Choose Set up my business and click Continue.
Choose Restaurant or café
Under Your kind of business, choose Restaurant or café. It turns on the features a café uses and names pages the way a café would, such as Menu for the products page. You can change it later in the app's Settings.
Enter Lamp Coffee's details
- Your business: type
Lamp Coffeein Business name in English and enter a Head-office address. The address prints on receipts. - Currency and time zone: pick the currency you charge in and your time zone.
- Your first location: if the flow asks, name the café's location.
Finish setup
Check the summary and click Finish setup. On You're all set, click Go to admin home.
You now have Lamp Coffee live at lamp-coffee.stardeck.site, with its own name, and you're on its
admin home.
Want to look around before entering real details? Choose Explore with sample data instead, pick Restaurant, and click Load sample data. The app fills with a sample restaurant's products, staff and customers. A banner in the admin reminds you it's sample data, and you can remove it any time to set up Lamp Coffee.
Ask for your first change
Back in the dashboard, open Lamp Coffee and select the Build tab. Starcat Developer works there in the app's sandbox. Ask for a change in plain words:
Add a loyalty stamp card to Lamp Coffee's POS: one stamp per drink, a free drink at 10 stamps.
Share the café's logo, colors, photos and menu up front. See Starcat Developer.
Next: Refining and Polishing
Keep changing Lamp Coffee and test it as you go