Adding Resources

Add a new model to your Plutonium app: scaffold it, migrate it, connect it to a portal.

Goal

Get a working list/show/new/edit/delete UI for a new model with sensible defaults, then customize as needed.

Steps

1. Scaffold the resource

rails g pu:res:scaffold Post user:belongs_to title:string 'content:text?' published:boolean --dest=main_app

Quote any field containing ? or {} to prevent shell expansion.

Full field-type syntax: Reference › Resource › Model. For all pu:res:scaffold options: Reference › Generators.

2. Review the migration

Plutonium generates a basic migration. Before running it, edit db/migrate/<timestamp>_create_posts.rb to add:

• Cascade deletes (foreign_key: {on_delete: :cascade})
• Composite indexes for tenant-scoped uniqueness
• Sensible defaults

3. Run the migration

rails db:migrate

4. Connect to a portal

rails g pu:res:conn Post --dest=admin_portal

This creates the portal-specific controller, policy, and definition, plus registers the resource in the portal's routes. Until you do this, the resource has no URL.

For singular resources (/profile, /settings), add --singular:

rails g pu:res:conn Profile --dest=customer_portal --singular

5. Trim the generated policy

The generator is liberal — it seeds permitted_attributes_for_* from your model columns. Open packages/admin_portal/app/policies/admin_portal/post_policy.rb and:

• Drop _id fields when the form should use the association name (e.g. :user, not :user_id).
• Replace :price_cents with :price if the model uses has_cents.
• Reduce to what users should actually be able to set/see.

See Reference › Behavior › Policies for details.

6. Visit the portal

http://localhost:3000/admin/posts

You should see:

• Index page with the columns auto-detected from your model.
• "New" button.
• Show / edit / delete on each row.

Customizing what you get

Want to change	Edit	See
Which fields appear / how they render	The definition	Reference › Resource › Definition
Search, filters, scopes, sorting	The definition	Reference › Resource › Query
Custom buttons / bulk actions	The definition + an interaction	Reference › Resource › Actions
Authorization rules	The policy	Reference › Behavior › Policies
Redirects, params, presentation	The controller	Reference › Behavior › Controllers
Custom page layouts	The definition's nested page classes	Reference › UI › Pages

Adding fields later

Two paths:

Migration only. Add a new column with a standard Rails migration. Plutonium auto-detects it — appears in all CRUD pages.

Field with custom rendering. Add the column, then declare it in the definition:

# app/definitions/post_definition.rb
class PostDefinition < ResourceDefinition
  input :slug, hint: "URL-friendly identifier"
end

Converting an existing model

If the model already exists, skip the model generation:

# 1. Include the module
class Post < ApplicationRecord
  include Plutonium::Resource::Record
end

# 2. Scaffold the rest (skips model + migration)
rails g pu:res:scaffold Post --no-migration --dest=main_app

# 3. Connect to portal
rails g pu:res:conn Post --dest=admin_portal

Resources in feature packages

rails g pu:res:scaffold Blogging::Post title:string --dest=blogging
rails g pu:res:conn Blogging::Post --dest=admin_portal

See Creating packages for the package structure.

Cross-package references

rails g pu:res:scaffold Comment user:belongs_to blogging/post:belongs_to body:text --dest=comments

The blogging/post syntax expands to Blogging::Post.

Related

• Reference › App › Generators — full generator catalog
• Reference › Resource — model + definition + query + actions
• Reference › App › Portals — pu:res:conn details
• Creating packages — resources in feature packages
• Nested resources — parent/child relationships