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Installation

Meet Magic

Magic is Laravel for Flutter. It's a framework built on the belief that mobile app development should be a joy, not a chore. Like Laravel revolutionized PHP development, Magic brings the same elegance and developer happiness to Flutter.

If you've ever used Laravel, you'll feel right at home. Magic provides:

  • Eloquent ORM - Beautiful, active-record style database interactions with the same syntax you love.
  • Expressive Routing - Define your app's navigation with clean, fluent route definitions.
  • Service Container - Powerful dependency injection and service management.
  • Facades - Simple, static-like access to core services without the complexity.
  • Magic CLI - Artisan-inspired scaffolding for controllers, models, migrations, and more.
  • Wind UI - Tailwind CSS-like styling directly in Flutter. No more widget tree nightmares.

Magic strives to provide an amazing developer experience while taking care of the complex infrastructure concerns, so you can focus on building something extraordinary.

Why Magic?

There are many ways to build Flutter apps. So why choose Magic?

Magic is a progressive framework, meaning you can start simple and adopt more features as your application grows. Whether you're building a quick MVP or an enterprise-grade application, Magic scales with you.

The Laravel Developer Experience

If you're coming from Laravel, you already know how to use Magic:

// Routing - Feels like home, right?
MagicRoute.get('/users', () => UserController().index());
MagicRoute.get('/users/:id', (id) => UserController().show(id));

// Eloquent - Same beautiful syntax
final users = await User.where('active', true).get();
final user = await User.find(1);
await user.delete();

// HTTP - Clean and simple
final response = await Http.get('/api/users');
if (response.successful) {
  // Handle data
}

No BuildContext Nightmare

One of Flutter's most frustrating aspects is passing BuildContext everywhere. Magic eliminates this entirely:

// Show dialogs from anywhere - controllers, services, even pure Dart!
Magic.success('Done!', 'Profile updated successfully');
Magic.dialog(ConfirmationDialog());
Magic.loading();

// Navigate without context
MagicRoute.to('/dashboard');
MagicRoute.back();

Wind UI - Tailwind for Flutter

Stop wrestling with nested widgets. Build UIs with utility-first classes:

WDiv(
  className: 'flex flex-col p-4 bg-white shadow-lg rounded-xl',
  children: [
    WText('Hello World', className: 'text-xl font-bold text-primary'),
    WButton(
      onTap: () => MagicRoute.to('/next'),
      className: 'bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-600 px-4 py-2 rounded-lg',
      child: WText('Get Started', className: 'text-white'),
    ),
  ],
)

Requirements

Magic requires:

  • Dart SDK: 3.11.0 or higher
  • Flutter: 3.41.0 or higher

Installing Magic

1. Add the Package

Add magic to your Flutter project:

flutter pub add magic

This pulls in Magic and all its dependencies, including Wind UI and the Magic CLI.

2. Scaffold Your Application

Magic CLI is bundled with the package — no global install needed. Run it via dart run:

dart run magic:magic install

This command creates everything you need:

  • lib/config/ — Configuration files (app, auth, broadcasting, cache, database, network, logging, routing, view)
  • lib/app/ — Controllers, models, providers, middleware, policies
  • lib/routes/ — Route definitions
  • lib/resources/views/ — UI view classes
  • lib/database/ — Migrations, seeders, factories
  • lib/main.dart — Bootstrapped entry point with Magic.init()
  • .env / .env.example — Environment configuration

You can exclude features you don't need:

dart run magic:magic install --without-database --without-auth --without-cache

Available flags: --without-auth, --without-database, --without-network, --without-cache, --without-events, --without-localization, --without-logging, --without-broadcasting. See Magic CLI for details.

Tip

For convenience, you can also activate the CLI globally: dart pub global activate magic_cli. This lets you use the shorter magic install syntax instead of dart run magic:magic install.

Bootstrapping Your Application

If you used dart run magic:magic install, your application is already bootstrapped. The install command generates a ready-to-run main.dart and all configuration files. Here's what was created:

Generated Entry Point

The generated lib/main.dart initializes Magic and runs your app:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:magic/magic.dart';
import 'config/app.dart';
import 'config/view.dart';
import 'config/auth.dart';
import 'config/database.dart';
import 'config/network.dart';
import 'config/cache.dart';
import 'config/logging.dart';
import 'config/routing.dart';

void main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();

  await Magic.init(
    configFactories: [
      () => appConfig,
      () => viewConfig,
      () => authConfig,
      () => databaseConfig,
      () => networkConfig,
      () => cacheConfig,
      () => loggingConfig,
      () => routingConfig,
    ],
  );

  runApp(
    MagicApplication(title: 'My App'),
  );
}

The Magic.init() method accepts:

Parameter Type Description
envFileName String Environment file name (default: .env)
configFactories List<Function> Configuration factory functions
configs List<Map> Direct configuration maps
providers List<ServiceProvider> Additional service providers

Manual Setup (Without CLI)

If you prefer to set up manually without the CLI, create a lib/config/app.dart:

import 'package:magic/magic.dart';

final appConfig = {
  'app': {
    'name': Env.get('APP_NAME', 'Magic App'),
    'debug': Env.get('APP_DEBUG', true),
    'url': Env.get('APP_URL', 'http://localhost'),
    'providers': [
      (app) => RouteServiceProvider(app),
      (app) => AppServiceProvider(app),
    ],
  }
};

Then initialize in lib/main.dart:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:magic/magic.dart';
import 'config/app.dart';

void main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();

  await Magic.init(
    configFactories: [() => appConfig],
  );

  runApp(MagicApplication(title: 'My App'));
}

The Application Widget

MagicApplication is your root widget. It handles routing, themes, localization, and overlays automatically:

runApp(
  MagicApplication(
    title: 'My App',
    debugShowCheckedModeBanner: false,
  ),
);

Wind UI Plugin

Magic includes Wind UI (fluttersdk_wind), a utility-first styling engine inspired by Tailwind CSS. Instead of nesting widgets, you compose UIs with className strings like flex flex-col p-4 bg-white rounded-xl shadow-md.

Tip

For the complete widget reference, utility classes, and advanced patterns, see the Wind UI Documentation.

Next Steps

Now that you've installed Magic, you may be wondering what to learn next. Here are some recommendations:

Welcome to the Magic community. We're excited to see what you'll build!