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Build a production app in 3 minutes

This quickstart takes you from zero to a deployed, production-ready application in under 3 minutes. You’ll build a movie recommendation API with real backend services, database integration, and live deployment.
Why a movie API? It showcases real backend logic, database operations, external API integrations, and multiple service endpoints - everything you need for production applications.
Built on Encore.ts: Leap generates apps using Encore’s framework for type-safe distributed systems. Unlike other AI tools that just generate code snippets, you get complete systems with APIs, databases, and infrastructure that actually work together. Learn more →

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What you’ll build

By the end of this guide, you’ll have:
  • Backend API service with multiple endpoints
  • Database integration for storing movie data
  • External API integration with TMDB (The Movie Database)
  • Live architecture diagrams showing your system
  • Deployed application running on your cloud
  • GitHub repository with full source code

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Generate your app

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Describe what you want to build

In the chat interface, describe your system: 
Build a movie recommendation API service that:
- Gets popular movies from TMDB API
- Stores user favorites in a database
- Provides search functionality
- Has endpoints for getting movie details
- Includes user rating system

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Watch Leap create your system

Leap generates your complete application in 30-60 seconds, including:
  • Backend services with type-safe APIs
  • Database schema for users and favorites
  • TMDB integration for movie data
  • Authentication endpoints
  • Rating and recommendation logic
Here’s what the generated code looks like: 
// movies/encore.service.ts
import { api } from "encore.dev/api";
import { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";

const db = new SQLDatabase("movies", {
  migrations: "./migrations",
});

export const search = api(
  { method: "GET", path: "/movies/search" },
  async ({ query }: { query: string }) => {
    // Your movie search logic here
    return await searchMovies(query);
  }
);
How it works: Each encore.service.ts file defines your APIs and Encore automatically handles the HTTP endpoints, database connections, and service communication. See how services work →

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Explore what you built

Once generation completes, you’ll see several tabs:
Your complete codebase
  • movies/ - Main service with API endpoints
  • users/ - User management and authentication
  • Database schemas and migrations
  • Type-safe service communication

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Deploy your app

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Deploy to Encore Cloud

Click Deploy and your app goes live in under 60 seconds with:
  • Automatic HTTPS and domain
  • Production database provisioning
  • Secrets management for API keys
  • Built-in monitoring and tracing

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Connect to GitHub (optional)

Click GitHub to:
  • Create a repository with your code
  • Enable automatic deployments on push
  • Set up collaborative development workflow

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Deploy to your own cloud (optional)

Want to deploy to your own AWS or GCP account? See our deployment guides:
  • Connect your cloud account in Deploy settings
  • Your app deploys to your own infrastructure
  • No vendor lock-in or runtime dependencies

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What you just built

Congratulations! You’ve created a production-ready distributed system that includes:
  • Multiple microservices with type-safe communication
  • Database integration with automatic migrations
  • External API integration with proper error handling
  • Authentication and authorization built-in
  • Distributed tracing for debugging and performance
  • Automatic API documentation that stays in sync
  • Live architecture diagrams for understanding your system
  • Built-in observability with metrics and logs
  • Git integration for version control and collaboration
  • Preview environments for testing changes safely
  • Infrastructure as code for reproducible deployments
  • Type safety across your entire system

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Next step

Understand Your App

Learn how your movie API works - the interface, services, infrastructure, and development patterns that apply to any Leap application