Firebase App Hosting skill: firebase-app-hosting-basics explained

Source: firebase/agent-skills · Maintainer: Firebase (Google) · License: Apache-2.0 · Checked: 24 October 2026

What is the Firebase App Hosting skill?

firebase-app-hosting-basics is Firebase's official Agent Skill for Firebase App Hosting. It teaches a coding agent to deploy full-stack Next.js and Angular apps with server-side rendering: writing apphosting.yaml, creating a backend, storing secrets, deploying and testing locally with the emulator.

Its SKILL.md description says it "Deploys and manages full-stack web applications (Next.js, Angular) with Server-Side Rendering (SSR) using Firebase App Hosting." It adds that it is for "configuring apphosting.yaml or firebase.json apphosting blocks, managing secrets, setting up GitHub CI/CD, or configuring Blaze billing requirements," and should not be used "for classic static web hosting, Auth, Firestore, Crashlytics, or Xcode."

Firebase's agent skills page describes it as a skill that "Streamlines the process of deploying and managing modern web frameworks like Next.js and Angular that require backend support using Firebase App Hosting." The name matches in Firebase's docs, the repo folder and skills.sh.

As of 24 October 2026, its skills.sh page listed 168.9K installs (snapshot, 24 October 2026).

What does it do?

The SKILL.md opens with a billing check: App Hosting needs the Blaze plan, and the agent should send you to the console upgrade page if your project isn't on it. Firebase's App Hosting docs say the same: "make sure it has the Blaze pricing plan enabled."

It then gives the same Hosting versus App Hosting rule as the Firebase Hosting skill: static sites and SPAs go to Hosting, while SSR or ISR apps built with Next.js or Angular go to App Hosting.

Deploy from source (the recommended flow):

1. Add an apphosting block to firebase.json with a backendId, a rootDir and an ignore list that skips node_modules, .git, .next and similar folders.
2. Create or edit apphosting.yaml.
3. Check apphosting:backends:list, then create the backend with apphosting:backends:create, passing --backend, --primary-region and --root-dir. The skill says to switch regions if one hits a 10-backend quota; we did not find that limit stated in Firebase's App Hosting docs.
4. Store secrets with apphosting:secrets:set and grant the backend access with apphosting:secrets:grantaccess.
5. Run deploy.

GitHub CI/CD. A backend connected to a GitHub repo deploys on push. The skill calls this an option "only recommended for more advanced users," and its CLI reference adds apphosting:rollouts:create with --git-branch or --git-commit to redeploy or roll back. Firebase's docs describe the same model: "A git commit is all that's needed to roll out a new version of your app."

What's in the folder:

• SKILL.md: the billing check, the Hosting choice and both deploy flows.
• references/configuration.md: apphosting.yaml settings. runConfig sets cpu, memoryMiB (128 to 32768), minInstances, maxInstances and concurrency for the Cloud Run service, and env declares variables or secrets with BUILD, RUNTIME or both as availability.
• references/cli_commands.md: init apphosting, backend list, get, create and delete, secrets and rollouts.
• references/emulation.md: running emulators:start --only apphosting, an optional apphosting.emulator.yaml for local values, and localhost:5004 as the default address. Firebase's Emulator Suite docs list 5002 as the App Hosting emulator's default port, so check the address the CLI prints.

Behind the scenes, Firebase's docs say "Apps are built with Cloud Build, served on Cloud Run, and cached in Cloud CDN," which is why the skill's resource settings are Cloud Run settings.

How do you install the Firebase App Hosting skill?

Firebase's agent skills docs install the full Firebase set per tool.

Claude Code plugin (all Firebase skills plus the MCP server):

claude plugin marketplace add firebase/agent-skills
claude plugin install firebase@firebase

Codex plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add firebase/agent-skills
codex plugin add firebase@firebase

Cursor:

npx skills add firebase/agent-skills --agent=cursor

Just this skill, using the command from skills.sh:

npx skills add https://github.com/firebase/agent-skills --skill firebase-app-hosting-basics

Add firebase-basics if you install it alone, since backends and deploys need a logged-in CLI and an active project. For where Codex and Cursor read skills, see Codex skills and Cursor skills. Claude Code reads skills from ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/, per its skills docs.

How do you use it?

The skill loads when you ask to deploy a Next.js or Angular app to Firebase, edit apphosting.yaml or manage App Hosting secrets.

Example prompts (suggestions, not quotes from the repo):

• Deploy this Next.js app to Firebase App Hosting. Create a backend called web in us-central1 and set it up from source.
• Move STRIPE_SECRET_KEY into Secret Manager for the web backend and reference it in apphosting.yaml at runtime only.
• Keep one instance warm on the web backend to avoid cold starts and give it 1 GiB of memory.
• Run the App Hosting emulator with a local API key override that isn't committed.
• Roll the web backend back to commit a1b2c3d.

If your project is on the Spark plan, expect the agent to stop and point you to the upgrade link before creating anything.

Tips and limits

• Security audits: all Pass. On skills.sh, Gen Agent Trust Hub, Socket and Snyk all showed Pass for this skill as of 24 October 2026.
• Costs money to run. App Hosting needs Blaze, and minInstances of 1 or more keeps a container running. The skill's own example sets minInstances: 0.
• No preview channels. Firebase's product comparison lists preview content as not supported in App Hosting, while classic Hosting supports it. It also lists a 5 minute request timeout for App Hosting versus 1 minute for Hosting.
• Local env files stay local. The configuration reference says .env* files are not uploaded, so declare every variable or secret in apphosting.yaml. The skill's emulation reference also says not to commit apphosting.emulator.yaml if it holds sensitive values such as API keys.
• Interactive commands. The skill warns that init apphosting is interactive and suggests editing firebase.json and apphosting.yaml by hand when an agent can't answer prompts.
• Unpinned CLI. Each command pulls firebase-tools@latest from npm.

Under Apache 2.0 you can copy and modify the skill as long as you keep the license and notices and mark files you change.

Save it in your Kipt library

Kipt stores prompts and skills as Markdown in a private GitHub repo you own. Paste the skill's GitHub folder link into the Skills import box to bring in SKILL.md and its three reference files, or paste the repo link and pick from the list of Firebase skills. Everything you save installs into Claude Code or Codex with one command:

npx skills add https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git --all -g

Kipt is not affiliated with Firebase or Google.

Similar skills

• Firebase Hosting skill: classic Hosting for static sites and SPAs.
• firebase-basics: Firebase CLI, login and project setup.
• Firebase Data Connect skill: a PostgreSQL backend for your App Hosting app.
• Deploy to Vercel skill: ships your app to a Vercel preview by git push, the Vercel CLI or a script.