---
sidebar_label: Development Guides
showTOC: true
subpages:
 - development-guides/local-development.mdx
 - development-guides/user-actions.mdx
 - development-guides/mobile.mdx
 - development-guides/layout.mdx
 - development-guides/networking.mdx
 - development-guides/multiplayer-experience.mdx
 - development-guides/growth-and-referrals.mdx
 - development-guides/assets-and-metadata.mdx
 - development-guides/production-readiness.mdx
---

[Home](/docs/intro) > [Activities](/docs/activities/overview) > Development Guides

# Activity Development Guides

These guides include suggested development practices, SDK commands, and user flows for you to consider while building your Activity. These will help to provide your users with a consistent and clear experience while interacting with your application.

## Local Development
<Container>
  <Card title="Run Your Application Locally" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/local-development#run-your-application-locally">
    Get up and running with a local development application.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Launch Your App from Discord" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/local-development#launch-your-application-from-the-discord-client">
    How to launch your app on mobile and desktop Discord clients.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Setup URL Mapping" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/local-development#url-mapping">
    Configure the Discord proxy to allow network requests to necessary external endpoints.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Logging" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/local-development#logging">
    How to use the various levels of logging while building your application.
  </Card>
</Container>

## User Actions
<Container>
  <Card title="Open External Link" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/user-actions#open-external-link">
    Open an external link from within your app.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Open Invite Dialog" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/user-actions#open-invite-dialog">
    Open the Application Channel Invite dialog within Discord.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Open Share Moment Dialog" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/user-actions#open-share-moment-dialog">
    Open a dialog to share media from your application to a channel, DM, or GDM.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Setting Up an Entry Point Command" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/user-actions#setting-up-an-entry-point-command">
    Configure a command that allows users to open your Activity from the App Launcher.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Encourage Hardware Acceleration" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/user-actions#encourage-hardware-acceleration">
    Open a dialog to enable hardware acceleration for compute-intensive applications.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Mobile
<Container>
  <Card title="Supporting Mobile Platforms" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/mobile#supported-platforms-web-ios-android">
    Update your application settings to support iOS and Android.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Mobile Safe Areas" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/mobile#mobile-safe-areas">
    Ensure that your app's assets fall within mobile-safe areas.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Mobile Thermal States" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/mobile#mobile-thermal-states">
    Respond to thermal state changes surfaced from iOS and Android.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Layout
<Container>
  <Card title="Application Orientation" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/layout#application-orientation">
    Configure and subscribe to changes in application orientation.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Application Layout Mode" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/layout#application-layout-mode">
    Subscribe to layout mode changes to update your application's user interface.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Networking
<Container>
  <Card title="Activity Proxy Considerations" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/networking#activity-proxy-considerations">
    Working with our Activity Proxy
  </Card>
  <Card title="Construct a Full URL" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/networking#construct-a-full-url">
    Generate a full URL when working with network requests.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Using External Resources" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/networking#using-external-resources">
    Allow network requests to external resources from inside the Discord proxy.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Security Considerations" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/networking#security-considerations">
    Keep things safe and secure in your Activity.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Multiplayer Experience
<Container>
  <Card title="Instance Management" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/multiplayer-experience#activity-instance-management">
    Managing instances to ensure users join the same instance as their friends.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Instance Participants" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/multiplayer-experience#instance-participants">
    Use the SDK to fetch the users currently connected to an instance.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Render Avatars and Names" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/multiplayer-experience#render-avatars-and-names">
    Retrieve and render the usernames and avatars of users connected to your application.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Preventing Unwanted Activity Sessions" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/multiplayer-experience#preventing-unwanted-activity-sessions">
    Validating activity sessions are via a Discord client before adding them to an instance's session.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Growth and Referrals
<Container>
  <Card title="Prompting Users to Share Incentivized Links" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/growth-and-referrals#prompting-users-to-share-incentivized-links">
    Encourage your users to share links to your activity by adding tracking and offering rewards for engagement.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Creating and Managing Custom Incentivized Links" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/growth-and-referrals#creating-and-managing-custom-incentivized-links">
    For off-platform sharing of rewards, promotions, or limited time experiences.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Generating a Custom Link Within Your Activity" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/growth-and-referrals#generating-a-custom-link-within-your-activity">
    An API to be able to generate ephemeral links with a customizable embed.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Assets & Metadata
<Container>
  <Card title="Setting Up Activity Metadata" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/assets-and-metadata#setting-up-activity-metadata">
    Best practices for configuring how your application shows up in Discord.
  </Card>
   <Card title="Setting Up Art Assets" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/assets-and-metadata#setting-up-activity-art-assets">
    Best practices for configuring how your application shows up in Discord.
  </Card>
</Container>

## Production Readiness
<Container>
  <Card title="Cache Busting" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/production-readiness#cache-busting">
    Manage asset caching in your application and the Discord Activity proxy.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Handling Rate Limits" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/production-readiness#handling-rate-limits">
    Stay within rate limits to keep the fun going in your Activity.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Static IP Addresses" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/production-readiness#static-ip-addresses">
    Network routing considerations when preparing your Activity for production use.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Backward Compatibility" link="/docs/activities/development-guides/production-readiness#backward-compatibility">
    Future-proof your application and support new commands as they become available in the SDK.
  </Card>
</Container>