Admin Configuration

In this document, you'll learn about the different ways you can configure the admin dashboard.

Plugin Options

The plugin accepts the following options:

medusa-config.js

const plugins = [
  // ...
  {
    resolve: "@medusajs/admin",
    /** @type {import('@medusajs/admin').PluginOptions} */
    options: {
      serve: true,
      autoRebuild: true,
      backend: "https://example.com",
      path: "/app",
      outDir: "build",
      develop: {
        open: true,
        port: 7001,
        logLevel: "error",
        stats: "normal",
        allowedHosts: "auto",
        webSocketURL: undefined,
      },
    },
  },
]

serveboolean

Whether to serve the admin dashboard when the Medusa backend starts. If set to false, you can serve the admin dashboard using the dev command.

Default: true

autoRebuildboolean

Whether the admin UI should be rebuilt if there are any changes or if a missing build is detected when the backend starts. If not set, you must manually build the admin dashboard.

Default: false

backendstring

The URL of the Medusa backend. Its value is only used if the serve option is set to false.

pathstring

The path the admin server should run on when running the Medusa backend in production. It must be prefixed with a slash /, but it can't end with a /, which throws an error. It also can't be one of the reserved paths: "admin" and "store".

Default: /app

outDirstring

The directory to output the admin build to. By default, the plugin builds the admin to the build directory in the root of the Medusa backend directory.

developobject

Options for the admin development server.

---

Admin CLI

Build Command Options

The build command in the admin CLI allows you to manually build the admin dashboard. If you intend to use it, you should typically add it to the package.json of the Medusa backend:

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    // other scripts...
    "build:admin": "medusa-admin build"
  }
}

You can add the following option to the medusa-admin build command:

• --deployment: a boolean value indicating that the build should be ready for deployment. When this option is added, options are not loaded from medusa-config.js anymore, and it means the admin will be built to be hosted on an external host. This also means that the backend URL is loaded from the MEDUSA_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL environment variable. For example, medusa-admin build --deployment.

Develop Command Options

The develop command in the admin CLI allows you to run the admin dashboard in development separately from the Medusa backend. If you intend to use it, you should typically add it to the package.json of the Medusa backend:

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    // other scripts...
    "dev:admin": "medusa-admin develop"
  }
}

You can add the following options to the medusa-admin develop command:

• --backend or -b: a string specifying the URL of the Medusa backend. By default, it's the value of the environment variable MEDUSA_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL. For example, medusa-admin develop --backend example.com.
• --port or -p: the port to run the admin on. By default, it's 7001. For example, medusa-admin develop --port 8000.

---

Change Backend URL

In Development

To change the backend's URL that the admin sends request to in development, you must disable the serve plugin option and set the backend option to the URL of your Medusa backend.

However, this requires you to also set-up the develop command as the admin will no longer start with the Medusa backend.

For example:

medusa-config.js

const plugins = [
  // ...
  {
    resolve: "@medusajs/admin",
    /** @type {import('@medusajs/admin').PluginOptions} */
    options: {
      serve: false,
      backend: "http://localhost:9001",
      // other options...
    },
  },
]

In Production

Note

This assumes that you've deployed the admin separately and you're passing the --deployment option to the build command.

To change the backend's URL that the admin sends request to in production, set the environment variable MEDUSA_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL to the backend's URL.

For example:

MEDUSA_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL=https://example.com

---

Custom Environment Variables

If you want to set environment variables that you want to access in your admin dashboard's customizations (such as in widgets or UI routes), your environment variables must be prefixed with MEDUSA_ADMIN_. Otherwise, it won't be loaded within the admin.

For example:

MEDUSA_ADMIN_CUSTOM_API_KEY=123...

---

Custom Webpack Configurations

Note

Plugins cannot include webpack customizations.

The admin dashboard uses Webpack to define the necessary configurations for both the core admin plugin and your extensions. So, for example, everything works out of the box with Tailwind CSS, the admin dependencies, and more.

However, you may have some advanced case where you need to tweak the webpack configurations. For example, you want to support styling your extensions with CSS Modules.

For such use cases, you can extend the default webpack configurations defined in the admin plugin to add your custom configurations.

To do that, create the file src/admin/webpack.config.js that uses the withCustomWebpackConfig method imported from @medusajs/admin to export the extended configurations. The method accepts a callback function that must return an object of webpack configuration. The callback function accepts two parameters:

1. config: the first parameter is an object that holds the default webpack configuration. You should add your configurations to this object, then return it. Not returning the default configurations will lead to the application breaking.
2. webpack: the second parameter is the webpack instance.

Warning

This is an advanced feature and requires knowledge of configuring webpack. If configured wrongly, it may lead to the admin application breaking.

For example:

src/admin/webpack.config.js

import { withCustomWebpackConfig } from "@medusajs/admin"

export default withCustomWebpackConfig((config, webpack) => {
  config.plugins.push(
    new webpack.DefinePlugin({
    "process.env": {
      NODE_ENV: JSON.stringify("production"),
      API_URL: 
        JSON.stringify("https://api.medusa-commerce.com"),
    },
    })
  )
  
  return config
})