Locally, tools and code live on your machine under macOS, Windows, or Linux. The MainPath Toolbox installs missing tools, clones your projects, and opens them in your editor; the machine requirements are under Requirements. Without installing anything, you work the same way in a remote workspace, a prepared Ubuntu VM in the cloud.
How the setup goes
You download the MainPath Toolbox from the downloads page, sign in with your MainPath account, and run the Developer setup, which installs whatever is missing, from Git and the runtimes to the ap CLI. Then you clone a project in the Projects area; the app fetches all repositories, creates the shared configuration, and opens the project in your editor or AI tool with a click.
The project folder
All repositories of a project sit under ~/Documents/MainPath/<organization>/<project>/: one directory per component, local-configuration for editor settings, and gitops-configuration for deployment.
~/Documents/MainPath/<organization>/<project>/
├── backend/ # one folder per repository
├── <app>/
├── homepage/
├── local-configuration/ # shared editor configuration (.vscode, .idea)
├── gitops-configuration/ # deployment configuration
├── .vscode → local-configuration/.vscode
└── …
The entries pointing to local-configuration are symlinks created by the MainPath Toolbox when cloning; the same editor settings therefore apply to every repository. Rules for AI agents come from the agent plugin (mp agent install); project-specific rules go in an AGENTS.md in the application repository (Your own rules for AI agents). Always open this project folder in your editor or AI agent, not a single repository, so backend, app, and homepage are visible together.
Working in the project
You start each application from its repository root with mp run-local, which depending on the type starts Docker services and a development server, Flutter web, or Hugo with the matching environment files; ports, stopping, and typical errors are covered in Starting applications. Runtime versions are pinned per repository in .tool-versions, provided by asdf on macOS and Linux and by FVM, NVM, and HVM on Windows. Configuration values live in env/*.generated.env (platform) and env/*.custom.env (your own values), see Environment variables; a push to main starts the pipeline from Git workflow and deployment.