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+# Console Starter — ObjectUI
+
+A fork-ready **console scaffold** wired against a real ObjectStack backend.
+`src/App.tsx` owns the routing tree and is the file you edit; everything the user
+then sees inside it — objects, fields, views, relationships, dashboards — is
+served by the backend, not defined here.
+
+## What it demonstrates
+
+The whole app is ~70 lines of JSX in [`src/App.tsx`](./src/App.tsx), assembled from
+building blocks exported by `@object-ui/app-shell`
+([`ConsoleShell.tsx`](../../packages/app-shell/src/console/ConsoleShell.tsx)):
+
+| Piece | What it gives you |
+|---|---|
+| `ConsoleShell` | Top-level provider stack: theme, navigation, favorites, notifications, `Suspense`. Goes inside `BrowserRouter`, around `Routes`. |
+| `AuthenticatedRoute` | `AuthGuard` + `ConnectedShell` + `RequireOrganization`, the guard for protected routes. `requireOrganization={false}` opts out (the `/organizations` route shows this). |
+| `ConnectedShell` | The data layer — `AdapterProvider` (an `ObjectStackAdapter` at `VITE_SERVER_URL`) + `MetadataProvider`. |
+| `RootRedirect` / `SystemRedirect` | `/` → `/home` once metadata loads; legacy `/system/*` → `/apps/setup/*`. |
+| `Default*` pages | Drop-in login / register / forgot-password / home / organizations screens — replace any one with your own component. |
+| `DefaultAppContent` | Mounted at `/apps/:appName/*`. This is the console proper: layout, command palette, and the object / record / dashboard / report / page routes. |
+
+Auth is `AuthProvider` from `@object-ui/auth` pointed at
+`${VITE_SERVER_URL}/api/v1/auth`. [`src/main.tsx`](./src/main.tsx) registers ten view
+plugins by side-effect import (grid, kanban, calendar, charts, list, detail, view,
+form, dashboard, report) and loads UI translations from
+`${VITE_SERVER_URL}/api/v1/i18n/translations/:lang`.
+
+[`vite.config.ts`](./vite.config.ts) aliases 24 `@object-ui/*` specifiers to
+`packages/*/src` so plugin registration hits one `ComponentRegistry` singleton — a
+monorepo detail. Drop the aliases when you consume published packages.
+
+## What it is **not**
+
+- **Not a schema or relationship modelling example.** Nothing in this directory
+  declares an object, a field or a relationship — there is no schema JSON here at
+  all; those live on the server. If you came here to see how relationships are
+  modelled, you want [`../schema-catalog/`](../schema-catalog/) and the docs
+  ([`content/docs/fields/lookup.mdx`](../../content/docs/fields/lookup.mdx) for
+  lookup / master-detail).
+- **Not a bring-your-own-backend example.** The data layer is hardwired to
+  `ObjectStackAdapter`. For your own REST/GraphQL API see
+  [`../byo-backend-console/`](../byo-backend-console/).
+- **Not an offline demo.** There is no mock server here; nothing past the login
+  screen renders without a live backend.
+
+## How to run
+
+```bash
+# from the monorepo root
+pnpm install
+pnpm -w build                 # required, see below
+
+cd examples/console-starter
+pnpm dev                      # Vite; no server.port is set, so the default 5173
+```
+
+**The root build is not optional.** The `src` aliases above pull in workspace
+packages that are *not* on the alias list and not in this example's
+`package.json` — `@object-ui/mobile`, `@object-ui/providers`,
+`@object-ui/sdui-parser`, `@object-ui/plugin-editor`, `@object-ui/react-runtime`.
+Those resolve to `packages/*/dist`, which exists only after a build. Skip it and
+Vite starts fine but serves 500s for those modules, leaving `#root` empty.
+
+### Backend
+
+`VITE_SERVER_URL` is the one setting that matters — the adapter, auth, i18n and
+action endpoints all hang off it. An empty value means same-origin, for when the
+ObjectStack server serves the console itself.
+
+| File | Value |
+|---|---|
+| [`.env.development`](./.env.development) | `http://localhost:3000` |
+| [`.env.production`](./.env.production) | `https://demo.objectstack.ai` |
+
+Point it at any ObjectStack server. If you need one locally, this repo's live-e2e
+helper [`e2e/live/ci/start-backend.sh`](../../e2e/live/ci/start-backend.sh) boots a
+real `objectstack dev` on port 4010 with a seeded admin — it is the CI lane's
+script, so expect it to fetch the showcase app metadata and `npm install`
+published `@objectstack/*` packages first.
+
+(`VITE_USE_MOCK_SERVER` appears in both `.env` files, copied from `apps/console`.
+Nothing in this repo reads it. There is no mock mode.)
+
+### Without a backend
+
+Measured with nothing listening on `:3000`: `/login` renders in full but cannot
+sign in, and `/` stops at the branded "Initializing application… / Connecting to
+data source" screen — the adapter never connects, so no route below it mounts.
+The browser console shows `ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED`.
+
+## Which example do I want?
+
+Full table in the [examples catalog](../README.md). Short version:
+
+- [`hello-world/`](../hello-world/) — the JSON → UI pipeline, one schema, no backend.
+- [`byo-backend-console/`](../byo-backend-console/) — embed ObjectUI in your own app, against your own API.
+- **`console-starter/`** (this one) — stand up a new ObjectStack console: fork it and edit `src/App.tsx`.
+- [`schema-catalog/`](../schema-catalog/) — not an app; the canonical schema corpus used by the docs and tests.
+
+`apps/console/src/App.tsx` is the same composition with more routes — read it when
+you outgrow this one.