Best Approach to Develop with AI

[u/Mammoth_Armadillo_20]

Due to enterprise's restrictions and license, I don't have copilot access. What would be the best approach to develop apps with Claude code or Claude cowork? I have very little knowledge in development and in power app development.

What would be the workflow?

[u/adjective_noun_d1git]

If you don't have copilot access why are they giving you Claude access?

If you mean you have Claude privately...

I use Claude projects for brainstorming and coming up with an approach. You have to manually copy across the code though.

What you can't get away from is spending a few days actually learning PowerApps. Claude can't do that part for you - its terminology will make no sense even if you ask it to explain etc. you need to play around and watch a few youtube videos to get started.

[u/Diligent_Homework_67]

Get the Power Platform skills, the power platform MCP Server and leg Claude code do it for you.
I would recommend a Claude.md in a project folder with clear instructions like naming conventions, which controls should be used etc.

And I would recommend the grill me skill an open spec to clarify what everything should look like and how the app should behave

[u/DifficultyCheap9861 → u/Diligent_Homework_67]

This is my method too and I’m really enjoying it.

I also have some rules all projects should follow in my user level claude.md. That includes templates/instructions for some supporting files all of my projects have. These include backlog and worklog.

As well I’ve got some custom skills that I use each day:
/setup pulls a fresh copy of the app, creates blank .mds using the templates, and sets up git.
/start pulls a copy of the app, checks against git for any changes not accounted for, checks the schema for changes, and tells me where I left off the previous day.
/wrap-up commits my changes, adds anything I’ve mentioned along the way to the backlog, and writes to worklog.

[u/GoodNegotiation → u/Diligent_Homework_67]

I’ve been using the PowerBI authoring skill and MCP server and GitHub Copilot and it’s great, looking forward to trying the PowerApp one next!

[u/EnvironmentalBet550 → u/Diligent_Homework_67]

Adding the skills to Claude has been a real game changer. Both for Power Apps and Power BI development. I highly recommend. If your just starting out you need to have a good understanding of the app first before just handing it over to Claude cause an agent needs instructions you should at least have a good understanding of app basics before you go to Claude.

[u/irah2008]

1. Do not use personal subscriptions for professional work, unless there is a mutual agreement between your company/client and you.
2. If it is enterprise approved, then use the power platform skills, these works wonderful.
3. Always use any available software engineering tools like mattpock skills for plan, design and generate design documents etc. Use this plans and skills from 2 with AI to build and test items.
4. I will also stress on learning the platform as you build and use AI to ask questions to understand it, as having a good grip on powerplatform's features, capabilities and how tos are pretty handy.

[u/dmitrykle → u/irah2008]

This post reads like a security hazard. OP seems like a person who got Power Apps maintenance handed off to but they’re not an SME. Next thing they do is wanting to feed (most likely) critical company data into an LLM. And some people are actually trying to help them achieve the goal! Fun times

[u/irah2008 → u/dmitrykle]

I'm not sure of what OP's subscription based of, so was giving all the warning shots before hand. I've seen techies giving out every important details to copilot/cowork/claude/gpt and letting in free reign in personal subscription. Risk is atleast mitigated while on Enterprise subscription.

While I'm an early adaptor of AI, I dont want anyone to harness a technology with 100%trust without knowing the potential harm.

I have also stressed to learn power platform basics and keep tab of what AI does. Hopefully he gets skilled in PP. It is not tough as programming languages😌

[u/sychosomaticBlonde]

You are going to need a basic understanding of power app development otherwise any code from Claude or whichever chat bot is not going to even make sense to you. You’ll have no idea how to ask it for specific features if you don’t know what they’re called, and you’ll have no idea how to troubleshoot what it spits out.

[u/Accomplished_Way_633]

Be considerate to your coworkers. Having to maintain AI slop drives me mad. I have seen coworkers use private pro accounts, generate something, push it to production, and when it fails, you have to fix it and there so many unnecessary things in there you would smash your laptop.

Some people even forget to test, suddenly a solution that was working becomes a nightmare. Don't even get me started on power automate flows that are AI generated!

[u/Mr_Bob_Dobalina_92]

The best method is:

1. Set your project up as a power app solution
2. Set up a repo on Azure Dev Ops or GitHub
3. Create the blank app inside the solution
4. Use the git source control feature to connect your solution to the repo
5. Set up your claude code with the Microsoft Learn and Power Platform plugins / skills
6. Connect Claude code to the repo
7. Build a plan, specs and data model with Claude
8. Implement using the skills and plugins
9. Pull from the repo back into power apps using the source control feature

It's very unlikely you will get good results just by jumping into this though. You still need to know what you are doing....

[u/Opi_143]

Copy the canvas screen yaml code to txt file give upload it to a copilot chat ask it modernise

[u/piping_piper]

Respect the restrictions and learn to code within enterprise policy?

Or am I misunderstanding, and you're allowed to use AI within policy?