The best way to choose is to ask who owns the source of truth.
Choose Slim when
- the page is small or embedded
- HTML is the natural authoring surface
- the runtime tree is generated directly
- the team wants a lightweight entry point
- you are building docs, demos, or interactive marketing surfaces
Choose Xuda CLI when
- you are building a full app from source files
- you want a canonical project shape
- logic units such as
get_data,set_data,batch,api, andalertshould live in dedicated folders - tables, routes, and AI agents need explicit resources
- sync and generated runtime docs should be handled for you
A practical migration path
Many teams can start in Slim and move to CLI later.
That path works well because:
- the runtime concepts stay the same
- field expressions still use
@field_name - programs still compile down to the Xuda document model
- structural tags and panels still matter
A simple rule of thumb
- if the page feels like a document or embedded widget, start with Slim
- if the project feels like an application, start with CLI