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Choosing a Pattern

Aksara offers several ways to start a project. This guide helps you pick the right one.

Quick Decision Guide

If you want to... Start with...
Learn Aksara from scratch Blank Project
Build a content-based app Blog Pattern
Build internal tools or CRM CRM Pattern
Build a SaaS with tenants Multitenant Pattern
See AI/LLM wiring examples AI Providers Example

1. Blank Project

Command:

aksara startproject myapp

Use when:

  • You know exactly what you're building
  • You want full control over the structure
  • You're following a tutorial or learning

What you get:

  • A minimal app with one example model
  • Pre-configured Admin and Studio
  • Ready-to-use project structure

Next steps:

2. Blog Pattern

Command:

aksara startproject myblog --template blog

Use when:

  • You're building content-focused apps
  • You want to see CRUD, list/detail views, and workflows
  • You need posts, comments, tags, and publish states

What you get:

  • Post model with title, content, slug, published state
  • Comment model linked to posts
  • Full ViewSets for both
  • Admin registrations
  • Sample queries and workflows

Key concepts demonstrated:

  • ForeignKey relationships
  • Query filtering and ordering
  • Boolean workflow fields (draft → published)
  • Slug generation

Docs: Blog Pattern

3. CRM Pattern

Command:

aksara startproject mycrm --template crm

Use when:

  • You're building internal tools or dashboards
  • You need customers, deals, and pipeline stages
  • You want to see reporting patterns

What you get:

  • Customer model
  • Deal model with stage tracking
  • Pipeline and Stage models
  • ViewSets with custom actions
  • Admin with list filters

Key concepts demonstrated:

  • Multiple related models
  • Enum-like stage fields
  • Custom ViewSet actions (e.g., close deal)
  • Aggregation queries

Docs: CRM Pattern

4. Multitenant Pattern

Command:

aksara startproject saas --template multitenant

Use when:

  • You're building a SaaS application
  • Each customer (tenant) needs isolated data
  • You need tenant-aware middleware and queries

What you get:

  • Tenant model
  • TenantUser model
  • Tenant middleware for request scoping
  • Base model class with tenant FK
  • Example tenant-aware ViewSets

Key concepts demonstrated:

  • Middleware for tenant resolution
  • Automatic query scoping by tenant
  • Tenant-aware model base class
  • User-tenant relationships

Docs: Multitenant Pattern

5. AI Providers Example

Location: examples/ai_providers/

Note: This is not a --template option. It's an example package you can copy.

Use when:

  • You want to wire Aksara's AI contracts to real providers
  • You're integrating OpenAI, Azure, or Anthropic
  • You need to see the adapter pattern in action

What you get:

  • Protocol-based LLM client adapters
  • Environment-based configuration
  • Prompt building from route hints
  • Example AI-powered ViewSet actions

How to use:

# Copy examples to your project
aksara ai examples -o ./ai_adapters

# Or browse them directly
ls examples/ai_providers/

Key concepts demonstrated:

  • Soft SDK imports (no hard dependencies)
  • Protocol-based adapter pattern
  • Environment variable configuration
  • Using AI route hints in prompts

Docs: Bring Your Own LLM

Comparison Table

Feature Blank Blog CRM Multitenant
Models included 1 example 2+ 4+ 3+
Relationships None ForeignKey Multiple FKs FK + Middleware
Admin setup Basic Full Full Full
Middleware None None None Tenant resolution
Best for Learning Content apps Internal tools SaaS

Next Steps

After creating your project:

  1. Configure your database – Run aksara dbsetup locally, or edit .env directly for remote/production environments
  2. Run migrations – aksara migrate
  3. Start the server – aksara dev
  4. Explore – Visit /admin/ and /studio/ui

Need more guidance? Start with Your First 10 Minutes.