Building an Admin System: Create the Project

Three prompts in order, each ending in something you can see — you never read code. Your computer is already prepared — see Start a Project.

An admin system is a matching pair: the website and the backend holding its data. Ask for them separately and you get two strangers, so every prompt treats both as one thing.

Step 1 — Create the project

Say this

Create a new project called admin-platform in this folder for the website-based management system only — no phone app, no desktop app, no public website. Use the Marsquakes tool to create it.

What you should see: a confirmation of exactly two pieces.

✅ Selected 2 modules:
   - Web Admin
   - API Service

Then ask "which pieces did you actually create?" — it should name only those two. Anything else means the wrong thing was built; say "delete it and do it again with only those two". (Every other combination — even a desktop app — makes the tool stop and ask; this pair is the default.)

Step 2 — Install what the project needs

Creating a project installs nothing

Step 1 only copies files and initializes Git — its final message prints mars init as your next command. Until then there are no dependencies, no Java or Maven and no .env, so neither half can start; the split also keeps project creation working offline. Do not skip this because Step 1 "looked finished".

Say this

Install everything this project needs and apply the settings it normally asks for. I am in mainland China, so use the download sources for that network. Put the data-store passwords in place before anything starts up for the first time.

Where you are matters: the wrong download source turns two minutes into twenty.

What you should see: a settings file at the top of the project with the passwords filled in, and an install that finishes without errors. Java and Maven also arrive here if they were missing — deliberately skipped at setup, because nothing knew you wanted a backend until Step 1 created one.

"Java works but something says JAVA_HOME is not set"

Not broken — the terminal was opened before Java finished installing. Say: "open a fresh terminal and check again before you reinstall anything." Reinstalling Java will not help.

An install that crawls is not an install that failed

It is almost always downloading from the wrong side of the world. Say: "switch to the download sources for my region and try again." Do not wait it out.

Step 3 — Start it and open it

The agent uses the convenient standard setup, with no decisions from you: the data store runs in a box on your computer — Docker was already part of the ready computer the setup page left you with — and the system itself runs on your computer so edits take effect immediately. You only ever look at the website.

Say this

Start the whole system the standard way and tell me the address of the page I should open. Keep everything running while we work, and let me know when it is ready.

What you should see: the agent naming an address starting with http://localhost, and a login page appearing there. That one page is everything you open — the data store and behind-the-scenes service start quietly with it and stay in the background so the agent can keep talking. The first start is slower, because the empty data store has to be filled first.

When the page opens before it is truly ready

Login failing or every page erroring on the first run means the service has not finished starting. Wait and refresh; if it keeps happening, say: "something did not finish starting — check it and tell me when it is ready."

When the website cannot find its data

An agent occasionally boxes the whole system, and the two halves then cannot find each other by their usual names. Say: "use the standard local setup — data store in its box, system running normally on my computer."

When the login page opens, the skeleton is done. Log in with admin / 123456. Next: Create a Feature.

When it goes wrong

You do not need to diagnose anything. Find your symptom, say the sentence:

What you see	Say this
The install crawls forever	"Switch to the download sources for my region and try again"
An "access denied" database error	"The password was changed after the database was first created. Delete the database volume and start it fresh"
The admin site loads but everything errors	"Something did not finish starting — start the whole system the standard way and tell me when the page works"
A "no package named api" message	"Start the behind-the-scenes service its own way — it is not part of the website tooling"
The website cannot find its data	"Use the standard local setup — data store in its box, system running normally on my computer"
It has been silent for a long time	"Are you waiting on something that never finishes? Start it the way that lets you keep talking to me, and tell me when it is up"