Build a custom app with TypeScript

Last updated: July 21, 2026

Relevant for: Developer

Build NOVA TypeScript apps locally and deploy them to your instance via containers.

This guide is for experienced developers who prefer working locally. The instructions assume you’re comfortable setting up your environment, installing tools, and deploying software.

NOVA provides a platform to develop, deploy, and manage custom apps for controlling robots. You’ll build locally using the Wandelbots NOVA TypeScript SDK, push your app to a registry, and deploy it to your NOVA instance using the NOVA CLI.

What this guide covers

Scaffolding a TypeScript app from the Next.js template (so you start with a minimal, working full-stack project)
Implementing your UI and API routes with Typescript
Deploying the app to a cell and verifying it at /cell/<your-app-name>

Prerequisites

You completed the Wandelbots NOVA quickstart guide and have a NOVA cloud instance running including a robot.
You completed the local development setup and have the NOVA CLI installed.

Create an app

Now that you have everything installed and configured, let’s create an app.

Create project with TypeScript template

It scaffolds a Next.js project with ready-to-use dev, build, and lint scripts, and it works seamlessly with the Wandelbots React components.

nova app create my-typescript-app -g "nextjs_app"

Develop in your preferred editor (Visual Studio Code works especially well).

Install pnpm & dependencies

pnpm is the default package manager suggested by Next.js, and is used in this template to manage the installed Node.js version as well as the dependencies.

curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh -
pnpm install

Update .env.local file

Connect the template to your NOVA instance by editing the .env.local file with the required values:

NOVA_DEV_INSTANCE_URL=http://my.instance.wandelbots.io
NOVA_DEV_ACCESS_TOKEN=token
CELL_ID=cell

Start app

Start the development server with:

pnpm run dev

You can then visit http://localhost:3000 to test the app locally.

Discover available components

If you prefer to jump into cold waters on your own, here’s an overview on available components.

Component	Description	Location	Language
nova-js	A JavaScript library providing convenient access to the Wandelbots NOVA API.	Github npmjs	TypeScript
wandelbots-js-react-components	A collection of ready-made React UI components based on MaterialUI and React Three Fiber to use with Wandelbots NOVA.	Github npmjs	TypeScript

Deploy your app

Once your app works locally, deploy it to your NOVA instance to make it permanently available. The deployment guide walks you through setting up Docker, connecting a container registry, and pushing the app with the NOVA CLI.

Further steps

To see the functionalities of the NOVA system available to TypeScript, refer to the nova-js documentation.

Explore the wandelbots-js-react-components storybook for examples of how to visualize robot motion and state.

To create FastAPI servers that expose robot programs as REST APIs for other frontend frameworks to consume, refer to the NOVAx framework.