Getting Started

Welcome to Plutonium! This guide will help you get up and running quickly.

What You'll Learn

• How to install Plutonium in a new or existing Rails application
• The basic concepts behind Plutonium's architecture
• How to create your first resource and connect it to a portal

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Ruby 3.2+ installed
• Rails 7.2+ (Rails 8 recommended)
• Node.js 18+ (for asset compilation)
• Basic familiarity with Ruby on Rails

Choose Your Path

New Application

If you're starting fresh, use our application template:

rails new myapp -a propshaft -j esbuild -c tailwind \
  -m https://radioactive-labs.github.io/plutonium-core/templates/plutonium.rb

This creates a fully configured Plutonium application with authentication ready to go.

Continue to Installation →

Existing Application

Adding Plutonium to an existing Rails app requires a few more steps but is fully supported.

Continue to Installation →

Tutorial

Want to learn by building? Follow our step-by-step tutorial to create a complete blog application.

Start the Tutorial →

Next Steps

After installation, you'll typically:

1. Create a Feature Package - Organize your business logic
2. Generate Resources - Create your models and scaffolds
3. Create a Portal - Set up the web interface
4. Connect Resources - Make resources accessible through the portal
5. Customize - Override defaults as needed

Each of these steps is covered in detail in the Tutorial.