What is Manifold?

Manifold is a VS Code chat participant that turns this:

@manifold setup my-app

into a guided provisioning pipeline that:

1. checks your machine,
2. validates auth,
3. scaffolds a React + Supabase app,
4. provisions GitHub + Vercel,
5. wires environment variables, and
6. deploys frontend + backend.

Manifold persists run progress in .manifold.json, so the setup state is traceable and resumable.

What this extension does

• Adds a chat participant: @manifold
• Stores run progress in .manifold.json
• Runs environment checks for:
  • git
  • node
  • python
  • gh (GitHub CLI)
  • vercel (Vercel CLI)
  • supabase (Supabase CLI)
• Verifies authentication for GitHub, Vercel, and Supabase
• Scaffolds app structure (frontend + supabase/functions)
• Provisions GitHub repo + Vercel project
• Writes env files (.env, frontend/.env)
• Deploys frontend to Vercel and backend function to Supabase

Required accounts (must have)

You need these accounts before running setup:

Recommended:

• Keep all three accounts under the same email/org context for easier permission handling.

Software to install on your computer

Core tools

• Git
• Node.js (LTS) and npm
• Python 3.11+
• GitHub CLI (gh)
• Vercel CLI (vercel)
• Supabase CLI (supabase, or npx supabase fallback)
• VS Code (latest stable)

Windows install commands

winget install --id Git.Git -e --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
winget install --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
winget install --id Python.Python.3.11 -e --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
winget install --id GitHub.cli -e --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
npm install -g vercel
npm install supabase --save-dev

First-time auth setup (one-time)

Run these before using @manifold:

gh auth login
vercel login

For Supabase, use these methods when prompted by Manifold:

1. Personal Access Token (sbp_...)
2. Project URL + Publishable API Key (https://<ref>.supabase.co + sb_publishable_...)

Quick start

In VS Code Chat:

@manifold setup my-app

Manifold will guide each phase in order and report progress as it provisions and deploys.

Deploy updates with one command

After setup is complete, you can deploy new changes anytime with:

@manifold deploy

Or target a specific scaffolded project name:

@manifold deploy my-app

What deploy does

• Verifies GitHub CLI and Vercel CLI authentication
• Finds your project folder (either current workspace root or <workspace>/<project-name>)
• Stages and commits local changes
• Pushes to GitHub
• Deploys frontend to Vercel
• Deploys updated Supabase Edge Function (api)

Requirements for deploy

• Setup must have run at least once so .manifold.json contains project/resource state
• You must be authenticated with:
  • gh auth login
  • vercel login
• Supabase access token must be available from the setup flow