Build a Power Apps Code App from Scratch Using Vibe Coding

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How to Build a PowerApps Code App from Scratch Using AI-Assisted Prompting





By Shaheer Ahmad

If you've been building PowerApps the traditional way — dragging, dropping, and clicking through the low-code studio — there's a new approach worth exploring: PowerApps Code Apps. This method lets you write your way into a fully functional Power App using prompts and code, giving you the developer control you've always wanted without giving up the Power Platform ecosystem underneath.

In this walkthrough, we'll go from zero to a deployed Inventory Management application, using an AI agent in your IDE to do the heavy lifting.





What Are PowerApps Code Apps?

PowerApps Code Apps are a different breed from the standard canvas or model-driven apps you may be used to. Instead of working inside the drag-and-drop studio, you build and edit your app through source code — meaning your app lives in a Git repository, is versioned like any other software project, and can be developed using your favourite IDE.

This approach is ideal if you have a developer mindset and want to leverage modern tooling while still benefiting from the Power Platform's connectors, security model, and deployment capabilities.

One important limitation to be aware of upfront: Code Apps are not supported in the PowerApps Mobile app or the Windows desktop application. Keep this in mind when evaluating whether a Code App suits your requirements.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have the following in place:

Tools: An IDE like Visual Studio Code, along with the Power Platform Tools extension installed. This extension bundles the PowerApps CLI, so you don't need to install it separately.

Runtime: Node.js (latest version) is required to initialize and run the project locally.

Environment settings: Code Apps must be explicitly enabled in your Power Platform environment. Head to the Power Platform Admin Center, navigate to Manage Environments → [Your Environment] → Settings → Products → Features, search for "Code apps", toggle it on, and save.

Licensing: Review the PowerApps licensing requirements to confirm your plan supports Code Apps.

It's also worth spending time in the official PowerApps Code Apps documentation before diving in. Microsoft provides sample projects and starter templates there that can save you a lot of time.

Setting Up the Project

With prerequisites sorted, the first step is creating a Git repository for your project. Using GitHub Desktop (or your preferred Git client), create a new repository — in this case, called inventory-management — and open it in your IDE.

Inside the repo, create a requirements folder. This is where you'll store your app's functional requirements. You can use AI to help draft these — a well-structured requirements document is the foundation for everything that follows.

Prompting Your Way to an App

Here's where things get interesting. Once your requirements are ready, it's simply a matter of prompting.

With the Power Platform extension active in your IDE, write a prompt that points the AI agent to your requirements document and the PowerApps Code Apps documentation. The agent will:

  1. Review your requirements
  2. Process the documentation for Code Apps
  3. Generate a structured implementation plan with phased tasks

Before executing anything, the agent presents the implementation plan for your review. If something looks off, you can adjust it. If everything looks good, you click Proceed and the agent gets to work.

The first actions it takes are:

  • Cloning the Code App template from Microsoft's repository
  • Installing all required Node modules and dependencies
  • Setting up the Fluent UI theme and mock data layer

This initialization can take a minute or two, but once complete, the agent moves straight into building your app screen by screen.

Iterative, Phase-by-Phase Development

The build process is broken into phases. After each phase, the agent:

  • Compiles the project to check for errors
  • Auto-resolves any build errors it encounters
  • Presents a walkthrough of what was implemented
  • Proposes next steps for the following phase

Your job is to review the walkthrough, accept the changes if you're happy with them, and tell the agent to continue. It's a genuinely iterative loop — part pair programming, part code review.

Over the course of several phases, the Inventory Management app gains:

  • A Product Catalog screen with list and form views
  • A Stock Management screen with "Receive Stock" and "Issue Stock" flows
  • A Settings screen
  • Locations and Alerts functionality
  • A Suppliers screen with a supplier form

Each phase builds on the last, and you can review changes in real time as your IDE reflects the evolving file structure.

Deploying to Power Platform

Once you're satisfied with the app, deployment is straightforward. The documentation provides the exact CLI command to deploy your Code App to your Power Platform environment.

Here's the general flow:

  1. Copy the deployment command from the docs
  2. In PowerApps, create a new Solution and assign a publisher
  3. Set that solution as your preferred solution
  4. Run the deployment command (without the solution name parameter, since the preferred solution handles that)

Within a minute or so, the app is live. You'll get a direct URL to play the application in the browser. As a bonus tip, you can append a URL parameter to hide the default navbar for a cleaner embedded experience.

Back in your solution, you'll see the app listed — but notably, you cannot edit it through the studio. Code Apps are source-code-only by design. Any changes need to go through your IDE and be re-deployed.

What's Next

The app at this stage is running on mock/static data. The natural next step — covered in a follow-up — is connecting it to real Dataverse tables so it reads and writes live data.

Key Takeaways

PowerApps Code Apps open up a genuinely new way to build on the Power Platform. By combining AI-assisted prompting with a code-first workflow, you can scaffold a complex, multi-screen application in a fraction of the time it would take manually — and you end up with a Git-versioned, IDE-friendly codebase to maintain going forward.

If you're comfortable in a developer environment and want more control over your Power Apps without abandoning the platform entirely, Code Apps are well worth exploring.

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