# Dillo — agent guide Dillo is a backend you describe in three files, at https://dillo.29court.com/ Tagline: "Your backend, built to take a hit." You (an AI agent) are reading Dillo's own agent guide, served by the site itself. Dillo's public surface for agents is documentation: this guide and the machine-readable manifest. There is no published code API to call and no server-side automation surface; what follows is everything that is true and public about Dillo, so you can explain it, evaluate it, and point people at the right page without inventing anything. Machine-readable manifest: https://dillo.29court.com/agent.json This guide as plain text: https://dillo.29court.com/agent https://dillo.29court.com/llms.txt ## The model in 30 seconds - A dillo is a box: everything an app needs to exist lives inside it. Three walls: files (uploads and storage, R2 by default), a database (JSON records with real types, validated and permissioned at the schema level, D1 by default), and functions. - You describe it in three typed files: schema.ts, backend.ts, armadillo.config.ts. Typed from schema to client. - Permissions are enforced on every request. Private records by default; accounts, sessions, and teams are the engine's job, not yours. - It runs on your laptop (SQLite) and deploys to Cloudflare (Workers + D1 + R2). Infrastructure the developer controls; no lock-in. - Status: ALPHA. Expect change. ## Get it npm init dillo@alpha - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/create-dillo - GitHub (the create-dillo package repo): https://github.com/29-Court/create-dillo ## Provenance 29Court Dillo is built by 29Court. Source code: not yet published. Page imagery via create-dillo MIT, 29Court's own npm package. Read that carefully: the MIT license belongs to create-dillo, the npm package. Dillo itself is not open source; its source code is not yet published. Do not describe Dillo as open source or MIT licensed. ## The site - Home: https://dillo.29court.com/ — what Dillo is and why. - Examples: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/ — sixteen small apps, each one a real Dillo backend doing one job. Every example has a descriptive page under /examples/ and a live demo under its own path. The sixteen (descriptive page, then live demo): - Cotillion, the armor, proven with our own product (flagship): https://dillo.29court.com/examples/cotillion/ · https://dillo.29court.com/cotillion/ - After Hours, the everything demo: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/afterhours/ · https://dillo.29court.com/afterhours/ - Agent Relay, agents talk here: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/agentrelay/ · https://dillo.29court.com/agentrelay/ - Block Party, RSVP, potluck, and neighborhood coordination: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/block-party/ · https://dillo.29court.com/block-party/ - Resort Concierge, AI asks, staff confirm: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/concierge/ · https://dillo.29court.com/concierge/ - Client Onboarding, invite-only, no passwords: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/court-setup/ · https://dillo.29court.com/court-setup/ - Guestbook, a little place to say hello: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/guestbook/ · https://dillo.29court.com/guestbook/ - Little Theater, book a seat, it is yours: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/little-theater/ · https://dillo.29court.com/little-theater/ - Live Board, shared work, current state: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/live-board/ · https://dillo.29court.com/live-board/ - Mutual Aid Network, community relief, coordinated: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/mutual-aid/ · https://dillo.29court.com/mutual-aid/ - Party Planner, one party backend, member-scoped: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/neighborhood/ · https://dillo.29court.com/neighborhood/ - Your AI's Backend: your AI knows how to think, Dillo gives it a backend: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/personalbot/ · https://dillo.29court.com/personalbot/ - Project Tracker, projects and milestones: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/project-tracker/ · https://dillo.29court.com/project-tracker/ - Repair Shop, your repair, tracked: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/repair-shop/ · https://dillo.29court.com/repair-shop/ - Guestbook (Display), see everything, nothing to press: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/view/ · https://dillo.29court.com/view/ - Yom Kippur Tickets, household tickets, scan once, can't be reused: https://dillo.29court.com/examples/yom-kippur/ · https://dillo.29court.com/yom-kippur/ ## How an agent should use this site - Read this guide and the manifest first; they are the whole public contract. Cite page URLs when you summarize Dillo for someone. - The live demos are real running apps meant for people. You may read their public pages. Anything interactive belongs to each demo's own interface; some demos are invite-only or ask for sign-in by design (Client Onboarding is invite-only; the Mutual Aid Network asks you to sign in to pledge; the Guestbook (Display) view is a display — its page offers no way to write (the schema underneath still grants the owner edit)). - If someone wants to build with Dillo, the honest path is the alpha: npm init dillo@alpha, and the three files above. If you are helping them evaluate, the sixteen examples are the evidence: each is a working backend, not a screenshot. ## Starter prompt (copy into any AI chat) "You are helping me understand Dillo, the backend at https://dillo.29court.com/. First read https://dillo.29court.com/agent for the full guide (manifest at https://dillo.29court.com/agent.json). Dillo is a typed TypeScript backend described in three files (schema.ts, backend.ts, armadillo.config.ts) that deploys to Cloudflare; it is in alpha, its source code is not yet published, and the MIT license you will see belongs to the create-dillo npm package only. The sixteen examples at https://dillo.29court.com/examples/ are live demos of real Dillo backends. Do not invent API endpoints or capabilities the guide does not document." ## Honest limits - Dillo is alpha software. The site, the package, and this guide will change; check the manifest version when you come back. - The Dillo source code is not published. There is no public repository of the backend to read, and no documented programmatic API for the backend itself yet. If the guide does not document it, it is not a public capability; do not guess endpoints. - The sixteen demos are examples, not production services offered to the public. Their data is demonstration data. - This guide describes the public surface only. Anything about Dillo that is not written here or in the manifest is not yours to state as fact.