Step 1 — Create your project

You are building DeskFlow for the fictional agency Northwind Studio — an internal task board API. Read the full project intro if you skipped it.

This step creates the empty deskflow-api folder on your machine. About five minutes.

What you will learn#

• Install the official app template with Composer
• Recognize the top-level folders you will use in every later step

Create deskflow-api#

composer create-project pionia/pionia-app deskflow-api
cd deskflow-api

Composer writes APP_NAME=deskflow-api into environment/.env.

You should see:

deskflow-api/
├── bootstrap/
├── environment/     # .env + settings.ini
├── public/          # index.php
├── services/        # WelcomeService.php (template)
├── switches/        # MainSwitch.php
├── storage/
└── pionia           # CLI

Open the folder in your editor — keep this terminal path for all remaining steps.

Common mistakes#

• Running commands outside the project root — every php pionia command runs from deskflow-api/.
• Editing files inside vendor/ — your code lives in services/, switches/, database/.