Quick Start

This guide walks you through creating your first Superset extension - a simple "Hello World" panel that displays a message fetched from a backend API endpoint. You'll learn the essential structure and patterns for building full-stack Superset extensions.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Node.js and npm compatible with your Superset version
Python compatible with your Superset version
A running Superset development environment
Basic knowledge of React, TypeScript, and Flask

Step 1: Install the Extensions CLI

First, install the Apache Superset Extensions CLI:

pip install apache-superset-extensions-cli

Step 2: Create a New Extension

Use the CLI to scaffold a new extension project. Extensions can include frontend functionality, backend functionality, or both, depending on your needs. This quickstart demonstrates a full-stack extension with both frontend UI components and backend API endpoints to show the complete integration pattern.

superset-extensions init

The CLI will prompt you for information using a three-step publisher workflow:

Extension display name: Hello World
Extension name (hello-world): hello-world
Publisher (e.g., my-org): my-org
Initial version [0.1.0]: 0.1.0
License [Apache-2.0]: Apache-2.0
Include frontend? [Y/n]: Y
Include backend? [Y/n]: Y

Publisher Namespaces: Extensions use organizational namespaces similar to VS Code extensions, providing collision-safe naming across organizations:

NPM package: @my-org/hello-world (scoped package for frontend distribution)
Module Federation name: myOrg_helloWorld (collision-safe JavaScript identifier)
Backend package: my_org-hello_world (collision-safe Python distribution name)
Python namespace: superset_extensions.my_org.hello_world

This approach ensures that extensions from different organizations cannot conflict, even if they use the same technical name (e.g., both acme.dashboard-widgets and corp.dashboard-widgets can coexist).

This creates a complete project structure:

my-org.hello-world/
├── extension.json           # Extension metadata and configuration
├── backend/                 # Backend Python code
│   ├── src/
│   │   └── superset_extensions/
│   │       └── my_org/
│   │           └── hello_world/
│   │               └── entrypoint.py  # Backend registration
│   └── pyproject.toml
└── frontend/                # Frontend TypeScript/React code
    ├── src/
    │   └── index.tsx        # Frontend entry point
    ├── package.json
    ├── tsconfig.json
    └── webpack.config.js

Step 3: Configure Extension Metadata

The generated extension.json contains the extension's metadata.

{
  "publisher": "my-org",
  "name": "hello-world",
  "displayName": "Hello World",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "permissions": ["can_read"]
}

Key fields:

publisher: Organizational namespace for the extension
name: Technical identifier (kebab-case)
displayName: Human-readable name shown to users
permissions: List of permissions the extension requires

Step 4: Create Backend API

The CLI generated a basic backend/src/superset_extensions/my_org/hello_world/entrypoint.py. We'll create an API endpoint.

Create backend/src/superset_extensions/my_org/hello_world/api.py

from flask import Response
from flask_appbuilder.api import expose, protect, safe
from superset_core.rest_api.api import RestApi
from superset_core.rest_api.decorators import api


@api(
    id="hello_world_api",
    name="Hello World API",
    description="API endpoints for the Hello World extension"
)
class HelloWorldAPI(RestApi):
    openapi_spec_tag = "Hello World"
    class_permission_name = "hello_world"

    @expose("/message", methods=("GET",))
    @protect()
    @safe
    def get_message(self) -> Response:
        """Gets a hello world message
        ---
        get:
          description: >-
            Get a hello world message from the backend
          responses:
            200:
              description: Hello world message
              content:
                application/json:
                  schema:
                    type: object
                    properties:
                      result:
                        type: object
                        properties:
                          message:
                            type: string
            401:
              $ref: '#/components/responses/401'
        """
        return self.response(
            200,
            result={"message": "Hello from the backend!"}
        )

Key points:

Uses @api decorator with automatic context detection
Extends RestApi from superset_core.rest_api.api
Uses Flask-AppBuilder decorators (@expose, @protect, @safe)
Returns responses using self.response(status_code, result=data)
The endpoint will be accessible at /extensions/my-org/hello-world/message (automatic extension context)
OpenAPI docstrings are crucial - Flask-AppBuilder uses them to automatically generate interactive API documentation at /swagger/v1, allowing developers to explore endpoints, understand schemas, and test the API directly from the browser

Update backend/src/superset_extensions/my_org/hello_world/entrypoint.py

Replace the generated print statement with API import to trigger registration:

# Importing the API class triggers the @api decorator registration
from .api import HelloWorldAPI  # noqa: F401

The @api decorator automatically detects extension context and registers your API with proper namespacing.

Step 5: Create Frontend Component

The CLI generates the frontend configuration files. Below are the key configurations that enable Module Federation integration with Superset.

frontend/package.json

The @apache-superset/core package must be listed in both peerDependencies (to declare runtime compatibility) and devDependencies (to provide TypeScript types during build):

{
  "name": "@my-org/hello-world",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "private": true,
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "webpack serve --mode development",
    "build": "webpack --stats-error-details --mode production"
  },
  "peerDependencies": {
    "@apache-superset/core": "^x.x.x",
    "react": "^x.x.x",
    "react-dom": "^x.x.x"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@apache-superset/core": "^x.x.x",
    "@types/react": "^x.x.x",
    "ts-loader": "^x.x.x",
    "typescript": "^x.x.x",
    "webpack": "^5.x.x",
    "webpack-cli": "^x.x.x",
    "webpack-dev-server": "^x.x.x"
  }
}

frontend/webpack.config.js

The webpack configuration requires specific settings for Module Federation. Key settings include externalsType: "window" and externals to map @apache-superset/core to window.superset at runtime, import: false for shared modules to use the host's React instead of bundling a separate copy, and remoteEntry.[contenthash].js for cache busting.

Convention: Superset always loads extensions by requesting the ./index module from the Module Federation container. The exposes entry must be exactly './index': './src/index.tsx' — do not rename or add additional entries. All API registrations must be reachable from that file. See Architecture for a full explanation.

const path = require('path');
const { ModuleFederationPlugin } = require('webpack').container;
const packageConfig = require('./package');
const extensionConfig = require('../extension.json');

module.exports = (env, argv) => {
  const isProd = argv.mode === 'production';

  return {
    entry: isProd ? {} : './src/index.tsx',
    mode: isProd ? 'production' : 'development',
    devServer: {
      port: 3000,
      headers: {
        'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
      },
    },
    output: {
      clean: true,
      filename: isProd ? undefined : '[name].[contenthash].js',
      chunkFilename: '[name].[contenthash].js',
      path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
      publicPath: `/api/v1/extensions/${extensionConfig.publisher}/${extensionConfig.name}/`,
    },
    resolve: {
      extensions: ['.ts', '.tsx', '.js', '.jsx'],
    },
    // Map @apache-superset/core imports to window.superset at runtime
    externalsType: 'window',
    externals: {
      '@apache-superset/core': 'superset',
    },
    module: {
      rules: [
        {
          test: /\.tsx?$/,
          use: 'ts-loader',
          exclude: /node_modules/,
        },
      ],
    },
    plugins: [
      new ModuleFederationPlugin({
        name: 'myOrg_helloWorld',
        filename: 'remoteEntry.[contenthash].js',
        exposes: {
          './index': './src/index.tsx',
        },
        shared: {
          react: {
            singleton: true,
            requiredVersion: packageConfig.peerDependencies.react,
            import: false, // Use host's React, don't bundle
          },
          'react-dom': {
            singleton: true,
            requiredVersion: packageConfig.peerDependencies['react-dom'],
            import: false,
          },
          antd: {
            singleton: true,
            requiredVersion: packageConfig.peerDependencies['antd'],
            import: false,
          },
        },
      }),
    ],
  };
};

frontend/tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es5",
    "module": "esnext",
    "moduleResolution": "node10",
    "jsx": "react",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true
  },
  "include": ["src"]
}

Create frontend/src/HelloWorldPanel.tsx

Create a new file for the component implementation:

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { authentication } from '@apache-superset/core';

const HelloWorldPanel: React.FC = () => {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState<string>('');
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
  const [error, setError] = useState<string>('');

  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchMessage = async () => {
      try {
        const csrfToken = await authentication.getCSRFToken();
        const response = await fetch('/extensions/my-org/hello-world/message', {
          method: 'GET',
          headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'X-CSRFToken': csrfToken!,
          },
        });

        if (!response.ok) {
          throw new Error(`Server returned ${response.status}`);
        }

        const data = await response.json();
        setMessage(data.result.message);
      } catch (err) {
        setError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'An error occurred');
      } finally {
        setLoading(false);
      }
    };

    fetchMessage();
  }, []);

  if (loading) {
    return (
      <div style={{ padding: '20px', textAlign: 'center' }}>
        <p>Loading...</p>
      </div>
    );
  }

  if (error) {
    return (
      <div style={{ padding: '20px', color: 'red' }}>
        <strong>Error:</strong> {error}
      </div>
    );
  }

  return (
    <div style={{ padding: '20px' }}>
      <h3>Hello World Extension</h3>
      <div
        style={{
          padding: '16px',
          backgroundColor: '#f6ffed',
          border: '1px solid #b7eb8f',
          borderRadius: '4px',
          marginBottom: '16px',
        }}
      >
        <strong>{message}</strong>
      </div>
      <p>This message was fetched from the backend API! 🎉</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export default HelloWorldPanel;

Update frontend/src/index.tsx

This file is the single entry point Superset loads from every extension. All registrations — views, commands, menus, editors, event listeners — must be made here (or imported and executed from here). Replace the generated code with:

import React from 'react';
import { views } from '@apache-superset/core';
import HelloWorldPanel from './HelloWorldPanel';

views.registerView(
  { id: 'my-org.hello-world.main', name: 'Hello World' },
  'sqllab.panels',
  () => <HelloWorldPanel />,
);

Key patterns:

views.registerView is called at module load time — no activate/deactivate lifecycle needed
The first argument is a { id, name } descriptor; the second is the contribution area (e.g., sqllab.panels); the third is a factory returning the React component
authentication.getCSRFToken() retrieves the CSRF token for API calls (used inside components)
Fetch calls to /extensions/{publisher}/{name}/{endpoint} reach your backend API

Step 6: Install Dependencies

Install the frontend dependencies:

cd frontend
npm install
cd ..

Step 7: Package the Extension

Create a .supx bundle for deployment:

superset-extensions bundle

This command automatically:

Builds frontend assets using Webpack with Module Federation
Collects backend Python source files
Creates a dist/ directory with:
- manifest.json - Build metadata and asset references
- frontend/dist/ - Built frontend assets (remoteEntry.js, chunks)
- backend/ - Python source files
Packages everything into my-org.hello-world-0.1.0.supx - a zip archive with the specific structure required by Superset

Step 8: Deploy to Superset

To deploy your extension, you need to enable extensions support and configure where Superset should load them from.

Configure Superset

Add the following to your superset_config.py:

# Enable extensions feature
FEATURE_FLAGS = {
    "ENABLE_EXTENSIONS": True,
}

# Set the directory where extensions are stored
EXTENSIONS_PATH = "/path/to/extensions/folder"

Copy Extension Bundle

Copy your .supx file to the configured extensions path:

cp my-org.hello-world-0.1.0.supx /path/to/extensions/folder/

Restart Superset

Restart your Superset instance to load the extension:

# Restart your Superset server
superset run

Superset will extract and validate the extension metadata, load the assets, register the extension with its capabilities, and make it available for use.

Step 9: Test Your Extension

Open SQL Lab in Superset
Look for the "Hello World" panel in the panels dropdown or sidebar
Open the panel - it should display "Hello from the backend!"
Check that the message was fetched from your API endpoint

Understanding the Flow

Here's what happens when your extension loads:

Superset starts: Reads manifest.json from the .supx bundle and loads the backend entrypoint
Backend registration: entrypoint.py imports your API class, triggering the @api decorator to register it automatically
Frontend loads: When SQL Lab opens, Superset fetches the remote entry file
Module Federation: Webpack loads your extension module and resolves @apache-superset/core to window.superset
Registration: The module executes at load time, calling views.registerView to register your panel
Rendering: When the user opens your panel, React renders <HelloWorldPanel />
API call: The component fetches data from /extensions/my-org/hello-world/message
Backend response: Your Flask API returns the hello world message
Display: The component shows the message to the user

Next Steps

Now that you have a working extension, explore:

Development - Project structure, APIs, and development workflow
Contribution Types - Other contribution points beyond panels
Deployment - Packaging and deploying your extension
Security - Security best practices for extensions

For a complete real-world example, examine the query insights extension in the Superset codebase.

Prerequisites​

Step 1: Install the Extensions CLI​

Step 2: Create a New Extension​

Step 3: Configure Extension Metadata​

Step 4: Create Backend API​

Step 5: Create Frontend Component​

Step 6: Install Dependencies​

Step 7: Package the Extension​

Step 8: Deploy to Superset​

Step 9: Test Your Extension​

Understanding the Flow​

Next Steps​