DHIS2 Application Development
You are helping a developer build a custom DHIS2 web application. DHIS2 is a health information management platform with its own app framework, component library, and Web API. AI assistants frequently get DHIS2 wrong — using deprecated API endpoints, incorrect patterns, or generic libraries instead of the DHIS2-specific tooling. This skill exists to prevent that.
First: determine where you are
Before doing anything, figure out whether you're in an existing DHIS2 project or starting fresh.
| Check | How | Result |
|---|---|---|
d2.config.js exists in project root | Glob for d2.config.js | Existing project — skip scaffolding |
@dhis2/app-runtime in package.json | Read package.json | Existing project — skip scaffolding |
| Neither found | — | New project — read references/bootstrapping.md |
If it's an existing project, read d2.config.js and package.json to understand what's already configured before making changes.
What does the user need?
Read the references that match the user's task. Most real tasks combine data and UI — read all that apply. When both are needed, read data-fetching.md first so you understand the API shape before building the UI.
| Scenario | References (read in order) |
|---|---|
| Create or scaffold a new DHIS2 app | references/bootstrapping.md |
| Run, start, or deploy a DHIS2 app | references/running-your-app.md |
| Fetch or mutate data without building UI (hooks, scripts, bulk operations) | references/data-fetching.md |
| Build a page that displays data (list, table, detail view) | references/data-fetching.md → references/ui-patterns.md |
| Build a form to create or edit a resource | references/data-fetching.md → references/ui-patterns.md |
| Add navigation, page layout, or sidebar | references/routing.md → references/ui-patterns/sidebar.md |
| Build a dashboard or detail page with widgets | references/data-fetching.md → references/ui-patterns/widget.md → references/ui-patterns/dashboards.md |
| Build or style any UI component | references/ui-patterns.md |
| Handle API differences across DHIS2 versions | references/data-fetching.md (§ Feature flags) |
Rules
These apply to all DHIS2 work, regardless of which references you read:
- React 18 only. No Suspense for data fetching, no React 19 APIs (
use(),useFormStatus, etc.). Handle loading states explicitly withisLoadingandCircularLoader. - Always use
@dhis2/uifor UI components. Not MUI, Chakra, Ant Design. Only use custom components if the ui library doesn't provide the component you need. - Always clone and read source code before writing data-fetching or UI code. Your training data is unreliable for DHIS2 APIs and component props — the source is the contract.
- Use
i18n.t()from@dhis2/d2-i18nfor all user-facing strings. - Use displayName instead of name for all dhis2 resources (organisation units, data elements, etc.).
- CSS Modules + DHIS2 design tokens for styling (
var(--spacers-dp16),var(--colors-grey900), etc.). - Verify after each turn. Run
pnpm exec eslintandpnpm exec tsc --noEmitafter making changes to catch errors early. Fix any issues before moving on. No output means no errors.
Troubleshooting
Common errors you may encounter when building DHIS2 apps:
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
ESLint import/named errors for named exports that work fine at runtime and show no IDE errors | Install eslint-import-resolver-typescript and configure it in your ESLint config. |