Catalyst Slate — Git-based frontend hosting for React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Astro, SolidJS, Preact and other frameworks with preview deploys. Trigger on 'Slate', 'frontend hosting', 'slate-config.toml', 'deploy React app', or 'cross-domain Slate to function'. Do NOT use for backend APIs or

⚠️ PRE FLIGHT CHECK — Slate activation (one time, per project): Before any Slate command, confirm Slate is activated in the console. Open the Catalyst console → your project → Slate (left sidebar) → click Start Exploring . This is a one time step. Skipping it means catalyst deploy slate fails with HTTP 400 even though slate:create succeeds locally. How It Works 1. Check if Slate is activated — Use MCP: call CatalystbyZoho List All Slate Apps with the project ID. If it returns apps or an empty list → Slate is activated. Proceed. If it returns INVALID URL PATTERN → Slate is not yet activated. This is NOT an MCP bug — it means the service needs a one time console activation. Tell the user: "Please open the Catalyst console, go to your project → Slate (left sidebar) → click Start Exploring . This is a one time step that takes 5 seconds. Let me know when done and I'll continue." Wait for confirmation, then proceed. Never fall back to Web Client (legacy) because Slate isn't activated yet. Web Client is deprecated — Slate is always the right choice for frontend hosting. The one time activation is not a reason to change the approach. If Slate was not selected during catalyst init , run catalyst slate:create name <name framework <framework default immediately after init. This command updates catalyst.json and prompts for the source directory automatically — it is faster than manual setup and should be the default recommendation. 2. Check if Slate app exists — If no app exists yet, run catalyst slate:create name <name framework <framework ni to scaffold one. If Slate was not selected during catalyst init , run this immediately after init. 3. Load references/slate basics.md — for framework setup, slate config.toml format, and baseUrl configuration. 4. Cross domain calls — If the query involves calling functions from a Slate app, apply the full URL + generateAuthToken() + CORS whitelist pattern. ⚠️ Migrating from basic client hosting? Relative paths like /server/fn/execute that worked in basic client silently break on Slate — Slate is served from .onslate.com while functions are on .catalystserverless.com . Every function call must become an absolute URL. Find and replace all relative /server/... paths with the full https://<project .catalystserverless.com/server/... URL and add generateAuthToken() headers. 5. Deploy — Before deploying, confirm Slate is activated in the console (Console → Slate). slate:create runs locally and succeeds without activation — the first backend call happens at deploy time, which fails with HTTP 400: Please access the Slate service in your project's console before deploying if not activated. Once confirmed: catalyst deploy slate <name ni deploys to the current environment. Preview URLs are available after the build completes. Triggers Use this skill for: "Slate", "frontend hosting", catalyst slate , slate config.toml , "deploy React app", "Slate framework", slate:create , slate deploy , "frontend on Catalyst", "Slate vs Vercel", "cross domain Slate to function", "Slate baseUrl", "Next.js on Catalyst", or "static frontend on Catalyst". References Reference Load when the query is about… references/slate basics.md Framework setup, slate config.toml gotchas, baseUrl config, CORS for Slate→function calls, Git deploy, CLI commands

catalyst-slate