Adobe Local Dev Loop

Overview

Set up a fast local development workflow for Adobe integrations using the aio CLI for App Builder projects, or a standalone Node.js setup for direct API usage (Firefly Services, PDF Services).

Prerequisites

• Completed adobe-install-auth setup
• Node.js 18+ with npm/pnpm
• Adobe Developer Console project configured
• @adobe/aio-cli installed globally (for App Builder projects)

Instructions

Step 1: Choose Your Project Type

Option A — App Builder (serverless Runtime actions):

# Install Adobe I/O CLI
npm install -g @adobe/aio-cli

# Login (opens browser for IMS auth)
aio login

# Create new App Builder project
aio app init my-adobe-app
# Select: Firefly Services, Adobe I/O Events, etc.

# Run locally with hot reload
aio app run
# Serves at https://localhost:9080 with live Runtime action emulation

Option B — Standalone SDK project:

mkdir my-adobe-project && cd my-adobe-project
npm init -y
npm install @adobe/pdfservices-node-sdk @adobe/firefly-apis dotenv
npm install -D typescript tsx vitest @types/node

Step 2: Project Structure

my-adobe-project/
├── src/
│   ├── adobe/
│   │   ├── auth.ts           # OAuth token management (from install-auth)
│   │   ├── firefly.ts        # Firefly API client wrapper
│   │   ├── pdf-services.ts   # PDF Services client wrapper
│   │   └── photoshop.ts      # Photoshop API client wrapper
│   └── index.ts
├── tests/
│   ├── fixtures/
│   │   └── sample.pdf        # Test PDF for extraction tests
│   ├── adobe-auth.test.ts
│   └── firefly.test.ts
├── .env.local                # Local secrets (git-ignored)
├── .env.example              # Template for team
├── tsconfig.json
└── package.json

Step 3: Configure Hot Reload and Scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx watch src/index.ts",
    "test": "vitest",
    "test:watch": "vitest --watch",
    "test:integration": "vitest --config vitest.integration.config.ts",
    "typecheck": "tsc --noEmit"
  }
}