Features and videos

APEXREST is one Oracle APEX plugin for Codex and Claude Code. This page explains its main capabilities, with a short video for each. Every video has English narration from a synthetic voice and burned-in captions. Provenance, data sources and limits are recorded in docs/assets/README.md.

Component library: read before writing

A single Metric Card page is 69 lines of nested APEXlang, and every guessed property costs another compile round. APEXREST gives the agent an offline library to read before it writes:

• Oracle definitions. The complete 26.2 Oracle inventory: 389 definitions and 32,187 contextual property occurrences.
• Compiler-checked recipes. The component catalog has 109 component families with 176 recipes. The pattern catalog has 58 UX patterns with 84 recipes, 69 of them compiler-checked.
• Reference pages. 1,350 public Oracle pages.
• Retrieval. apexrest_reference searches plain English or Ukrainian terms, ranks ready recipes first and returns the top hit's code. A change uses at most three lookups.
• Recipes as contracts. Each recipe carries a data shape, adaptation rules, working APEXlang, and compiler evidence bound to file checksums.

The video shows real APEXREST 2.1.0 search results, an LOV_NOT_FOUND compiler diagnostic and the passing validation after the fix. The user request and the compile-loop sketch are illustrations.

Decisions API: choose components before generating

The optional OpenAI Decisions selection runs through apexrest_reference mode:select and apexrest docs select. One bounded predicate batch ranks up to 64 compatible local catalog candidates. The host model then writes the page from the verified local contracts. When selection is disabled, search and read stay fully local.

In a one-page pilot, the same model built the same APEXlang page three times with selection and three times without it:

• Average active time fell from 5:44 to 2:58 (−48%).
• Main-model tokens fell from about 59,000 to 35,000. Decisions usage is additional.
• Two of three selected runs passed on the first generation.
• All six final pages passed the offline Oracle compiler and the same 46 checks.

This is a single-page pilot, not a general benchmark. The page in the video is a wireframe with synthetic data.

Local preview: run APEXlang without a database

apexrest preview serves an APEXlang application from Node.js and SQLite on 127.0.0.1. Pages render with the genuine Universal Theme 26.2 templates, CSS and JavaScript. You or the agent can open real pages, submit forms and see an .apx edit on the next reload, before anything is compiled or imported. The video tours a 22-page showcase application with one page per component family. preview check renders all 22 pages with 0 errors and 0 warnings.

apexrest preview setup                        # once: extracts the APEX 26.2 browser runtime and theme templates
apexrest preview check --project /abs/app     # render every page, list what is not simulated
apexrest preview start --project /abs/app     # serve pages and print their URLs

Running APEXlang locally gives you:

• Speed. Design feedback takes seconds, not a compile-and-import cycle.
• No database. You need no Oracle access and no shared workspace, and it works offline.
• Safe experiments. Data lives in local SQLite and resets at any time.
• Agents that check their own work. AI agents can open and click the pages they write.

The preview is a design aid, not Oracle evidence. Charts are SVG rather than Oracle JET, maps have no tiles, and anything it does not simulate is listed in diagnostics. Read the local preview guide.

Connected preview: run the backend in your database (part 2)

Watch part 2 (MP4, 2:09) · Captions

Part 2 of the local preview series. The local UI from part 1 can run its backend in your own DEV, QA or TEST database. Add --env and the Node.js preview opens one session through your saved SQLcl connection.

• SQL. Region, report, LOV and form SQL runs in Oracle as written, with page items as binds.
• PL/SQL. Processes, validations and conditions run as real PL/SQL blocks, including your own packages. Bind values flow back into the page.
• APEX session. When the application is installed in the target, a real APEX session makes v() and apex_util work inside packages.
• Nothing persists.
  • Every request ends with a rollback.
  • COMMIT and dynamic SQL in page code are never sent, and a tripwire catches commits from stored code.
  • Production is refused, and the database identity must match.

apexrest preview check --project /abs/app --env test   # every page against the real database
apexrest preview start --project /abs/app --env test   # local UI, data and PL/SQL in Oracle

The video shows an original stock-control application on a demo Oracle Autonomous Database:

• all 17 pages checked in 21 seconds with 0 errors;
• a receipt posted through the project's package and then rolled back;
• an over-stock issue rejected with the package's own error message.

It is a verification aid, not import evidence. Read Connected Oracle mode.

APEX 26.2: import only what changed

Update a page and its shared list of values without re-importing the rest of the application. APEXREST compares the saved baseline, local edits and a fresh server export. It preserves remote-only changes and blocks conflicts before writing. The video walks through one page change: selective export, local edit, compiler validation, scope planning and a selected-file import with readback.

Partial imports require:

• an existing dev/test application and a trusted sync baseline;
• APEX 26.2 sources and target;
• the reviewed SQLcl 26.3 compiler on a direct connection.

APEX 26.1 keeps full imports. See APEX 26.2 partial imports.

The first local preview video

The earlier explainer runs Oracle's public HR demo app in the preview. It shows a report, a modal form with real validation messages, a save that refreshes the report, and an .apx edit that appears on the next reload.

Safe deployment

A plan binds sources, configuration, toolchain and target, and expires after 30 minutes. Apply then:

• re-checks identity and drift;
• keeps a checksummed APEXlang snapshot of the selected scope or the full application;
• freezes the sources;
• records migration history and ownership in a local durable store under APEXREST_HOME.

A clean supported APEX installation is enough: APEXREST creates no service tables. Coordination is local to one managed home, so independent machines need external serialization, such as one CI deploy job. An unknown outcome is never retried blindly. Production targets always block deployment and restore. Read deployment safety.

Oracle access

SQLcl runs in one of two modes: cli (a subprocess) or mcp (the official SQLcl stdio server). The database transport is either direct (the Oracle listener) or ords (REST-Enabled SQL over HTTPS, no port 1521). ORDS requires cli mode and plugin-level credentials kept in private local files, never in chat:

apexrest connection add dev-read --ords-url https://ords.example.invalid/ords/app_user/ --ords-username app_user --password-file /path/to/local/file
apexrest sqlcl configure --mode cli --database-transport ords --json
apexrest connection test dev-read --json

ORDS also enables the Codex Cloud setup, where the bundled CLI runs inside the Cloud container and reaches your database over HTTPS. See SQL through ORDS.

Work in one session

Describe the change in the conversation, or invoke the work skill: $apexrest-work in Codex, /apexrest:apexrest-work in Claude Code. The skill follows the cycle below. Every project-scoped tool takes the absolute project directory as project.

1. Project.
   • New app: apexrest_project action:init with directory and template (blank-app or customer-crm) generates real Oracle sources.
   • Existing app: action:inspect. apexrest_apex_sync action:status shows a working copy.
2. References. Use at most three lookups per change: apexrest_reference mode:search with short terms, kind and limit:3, then mode:read on the chosen ID. mode:select adds optional Decisions ranking.
3. Edit and preview. Edit .apx files under the application source directory, keeping .apex/apexlang.json, Oracle IDs, authentication and authorization. apexrest_preview action:start serves the pages locally without a database. Previewing is not validation.
4. Ship. For ordinary authorized edits, make one apexrest_ship mode:apply call with env and userRequest (your literal instruction). The runtime then compiles, plans, records an exact-plan grant, backs up, imports, verifies and removes the grant. importMode:auto selects eligible changed pages and shared files, files binds exact paths, and other or global changes use the full application.
5. Review when needed. Use standalone apexrest_apex_validate for diagnostics, or mode:plan for an explicit review. Skip these duplicate calls during ordinary edits.
6. Wait for completion. If the call is still running after waitSeconds, read apexrest_job with the returned jobId. Never rerun ship to fetch a result.
7. Verify when requested. apexrest_browser_open returns the URL. The agent then opens it in the selected browser and checks rendering, navigation and the changed interaction.
8. Report. Files changed, validation result, ship status and runId, pages verified in the browser, and anything not verified with its reason.

An explicit request to create, update or import an identified DEV/QA/TEST application is the authorization for step 4, and the agent does not ask again. Production targets always block deployment and restore. Read the canonical deployment safety rules.

Tools

Validation, planning, references, metadata and sync run inside the MCP server process on a pooled SQLcl engine. ship apply runs in a detached worker, so a database write survives host termination. The CLI keeps granular commands (project, connection, apex, deploy, jobs, compose, sqlcl, dependencies, preview) plus ship, status, job and reference; run apexrest --help.

Skills

Invoke a skill as $apexrest-work in Codex or /apexrest:apexrest-work in Claude Code, or describe the change and let the host select it. The skills are host-neutral, and reference files load on demand. Compiler readiness does not imply SQL, import or browser verification.

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