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Dashboard Quickstart

Build your first FastAPI backend in 5 minutes using the visual dashboard.

Step 1: Sign Up & Create Project​

  1. Go to https://app.builder.dumbpotato.com (or your deployment URL)
  2. Click Sign Up → enter email and password
  3. Click Create Project → name it "Blog"
  4. You're in! You'll see the project overview.

Step 2: Add Your First Entity​

  1. Click Data Model in the sidebar
  2. Click + New Entity
  3. Name it "Post", click Create
  4. You'll see the entity with zero fields

Step 3: Add Fields​

Click Add Field and create these:

Field NameTypeRequired?
titleString (max 200)✅ Yes
contentText✅ Yes
publishedBooleanNo (default: false)
viewsIntegerNo (default: 0)

After each, click Save.

Step 4: Add Another Entity with Relation​

  1. + New Entity → name it "Comment"
  2. Add fields:
    • body: Text (required)
    • author_name: String, max 100 (required)
  3. Click + New Relation in the sidebar
  4. From: Comment → To: Post
  5. Type: many-to-one (many comments per post)
  6. Name: post (the field name on Comment)
  7. Click Create

Step 5: Preview & Download​

  1. Click Generate in sidebar
  2. Click Preview → see the file tree
  3. See app/models/, app/api/, alembic/ etc.
  4. Click Download → get blog.zip

Step 6: Run It Locally​

unzip blog.zip
cd blog
docker compose up --build

Wait for "Application startup complete".

Step 7: Test the API​

Open https://api.builder.dumbpotato.com/docs (Swagger UI)

Try this:

  1. POST /posts → create a post 
    {
      "title": "My First Post",
      "content": "Hello world!",
      "published": true
    }
  2. GET /posts → see your post
  3. POST /comments → add a comment (use the post's id)
  4. GET /posts/{id}/comments → see comments

You just built a working API in 5 minutes.

What You Got​

The downloaded project includes:

  • ✅ FastAPI app with CRUD endpoints for Post and Comment
  • ✅ Database migrations (Alembic)
  • ✅ PostgreSQL via Docker Compose
  • ✅ Tests (pytest + fixtures)
  • ✅ Dockerfile for deployment
  • ✅ README with all commands

Next Steps​

Add more features:

  • Add Authentication tutorial (coming soon) - sign up, login, permissions
  • Add Payments tutorial (coming soon) - Stripe or Razorpay
  • Deploy to Cloud - AWS, Azure, or GCP

Learn the dashboard:

Use the API instead:

Troubleshooting​

"docker compose up" fails:

  • Check Docker is running
  • Check ports 8000 and 5432 aren't used: lsof -i :8000

"Validation error" in dashboard:

  • Check every required field is filled
  • Entity names must be singular (Post, not Posts)
  • See the dashboard validation output for fixes

Can't log in:

  • Clear browser cookies
  • Try incognito/private mode
  • Check console for errors (F12)
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