Code Apps using Claude Code – Power Platform

September 30, 2026October 10, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Agentic Development, AI Thought Leadership

As straight forward as the title is deploying Code Apps from the start. If you are in Power Platform already, here’s where the evolution is from –

Model-Driven Apps [Traditional Power Platform / Dynamics 365 CRM forms and View, Sitemaps and all of that you’ve known so far]
Canvas Apps – Close to a decade to blend the experience of Power Point but to build Apps that connect to data sources and design things the way you like.
Code Apps – [Build Practically Anything, sits in Power Platform]

I have a 2-blog series to explain Code Apps and I’ll continue to enrich this blog as a placeholder for Code Apps and making it easy for you to follow through and get your first one out even if you feel you are too late –

Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 1 [Using VS Code and Claude Code] – Getting Started
Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 2 [Updating your Apps and Deployment]

And also check Power Platform experience to Vibe-Code your Code Apps without really leaving the Power Platform experience at all – Power Apps Vibe Coded Experience [Preview]

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Advances and Retainers in Project Operations

September 30, 2026October 4, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations

Below is how you can setup Advanced and Retainers – and what is this in simple terms?

Pre-Bill the Customer upfront.
Reconcile the Billing amount before the next Billing cycle.
If under-utilized or till the Amount, 0 is billed on.
If over-utilized, the overage is billed to the customer on the Invoice created on Contract.

Setup Contract for Retainer Schedule

On the Contract for a combination of T&M and Fixed Price Contract Line, here’s how I setup the Retainer Schedule –

Here are the Line Items on the Project Contract tied to the same project.
And on the Contract, you have Advanced and Retainers Setup already.
Here, you have the option to Setup the schedule.
When you click on Setup a retainer schedule, it’ll ask you to fill out the details. You can either select and End Date for the Retainer of no. of Retainer Invoices to be created.
But, the message isn’t shown till you realize it after you enter both.

And when I tried to enter this – it gave me an error.
So, I just kept the End Date
And it’ll create the Schedule for me.

Now, this is set.

Invoice the Retainers

Now, the Retainer Schedule is ready, let’s Invoice and confirm the Invoice –

I can select the Retainer line and click on Ready to Invoice.
Once this is ready, I can create the Invoice from the Contract.
Once the Invoice is created, you’ll see that the Advances and Retainers section shows the Invoiced line item.
Now, you confirm this Invoice.
Once the Invoice is confirmed, this amount is available to be used on the Contract.

Consuming the Retainers

Now, this amount is available for us to consume on the Project. Let’s pre-date the Time Entries to see how the Available Amount is consumed –

These are my time entries. And I’ll submit them.
The Project Approver approves them so that Actuals are created which can be made as Ready to Invoice.

Now, the Unbilled Sales will be made as Ready to Invoice.
Now, as usual – Invoice will be created without doing anything to the Contract Retainer setup.
Now, the Pro-forma Invoice will be created and the Amount is seen on the Line Items of what was Ready to Invoice but the Invoice amount itself will be 0.
If you scroll to the bottom of the Invoice, you’ll see the Balance remaining due to this Invoice.
Now, you confirm the Invoice.
And once the Invoice is Confirmed, the Used Amount on the Contract’s Retainer schedule will be updated.

If you over use the balance, the upcoming Invoice will have less amount to be billed based on what’s available.

Hope this was helpful!

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Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 2 [Updating your Apps and Deployment]

September 30, 2026October 3, 2026 priyeshwagh777 AI Thought Leadership, Dynamics 365, dynamics 365 customization, Microsoft PowerApps

Now that we learnt how to get started and put up your first blank app in Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 1 [Using VS Code and Claude Code] – Getting Started. In this post, we ‘ll understand how you can continue to work with your Code Apps like you would for any other solutions in Dataverse.

Pushing your App to the Environment

Now that Code Apps was run locally and hosted on the environment. We’ll see how it is coming along –

Code Apps was running on Localhost as we saw in the previous post. You can always use the command pa app run to test this and it’ll give you a URL which on the browser of your environment will appear like this –
Now, you can check if this is published or not by running pa app list
And then, you’ll be able to push this to the environment itself.
First, npm run build and then pa app push
This will first build the app locally and then push it to the environment.
Here, the App is now pushed to your preferred Solution which you have set for your evironment.

Now, the App is on the environment and can be run from there.

Update Your Changes

Now that the App is deployed, I’ll continue to make more changes to it –

Just chat with Claude Code and build your App first. Like so –
Once all the changes are written – you can run pa app run to run the App server locally.
Now, once you copy the URL it gave back – basically the same one which is generated for localhost.
It’ll now show the changes you did.
And then again, push the changes to the environment. Using the same commands –
npm run build pa app push

Running the App on the Environment

We have not run it locally, let’s run it on the environment –

Locate your App like you would do for any Canvas/Model-Driven app and you can simply Run it.
But here, something is wrong – it didn’t load my app. Maybe something is missing and I need to debug. Correct?

This segways into debugging mode.

Debug the App on the Environment

Now, let’s debug the App on the environment –

Simply chat with Claude Code explaning the issue. Follow the instructions based on what it says and every time the App is updated, run npm run build and then pa app push to keep pushing your changes to the environment and keep checking.

And that’s pretty much how you go about it.

Hope this was helpful!

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Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 1 [Using VS Code and Claude Code] – Getting Started

September 30, 2026October 3, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Customizations, Dynamics 365, Microsoft PowerApps, Power Platform Admin Center

Code Apps has been our earlier this year and I’ve seen people start to use it already. But some stumble upon it and somehow end up creating and managing it – but when we try to remember where we started, it get a little blurry.

Also, this is great segway to move to something not Microsoft-native from a development standpoint and moving away from using Visual Studio (traditionally for C# .NET Framework Plugins) to Node.js based vibe-coded Code-App development.
So, we’ve come from Model-driven Apps -> Canvas Power Apps -> now Code Apps!

Let’s get your first Code Apps out of th door.

Enable Code Apps in your Power Platform Environment

Given you might be a Power Platform / Dynamics 365 Admin already, go to the your Environment’s Settings as below –

Look for Features –
Then, Code Apps might already be Disabled, you need to Enable it.
Make sure to Save the settings and check if it is enabled.

That’s it, you’re set. Now let’s get your environment setup.

Setup your VS Code with with Node.js [and Claude Code] to start writing your Code App

Suppose you are using VS Code [the most popular choice for coding lately 😊, or vibe-coding with Claude Code], here’s how you set it up –

Make sure Node.js is setup on your machine post. Check it using Claude Code on Visual Studio.
Use “node –version” to check the installation is in place.

In case Node.js is not installed – on a Mac, use Homebrew to get it or from winget on a Windows machine.
That set up, now – Power Apps CLI or “pac cli” for short.
So, check using pac –version
I’ll ignore the rest of the message for now.
Now, my preference is to build locally and then host it on the environment. So, my next step is – to authenticate Power Platform CLI to the target environment.

One of the ways to authenticate Power Apps CLI is to also use Device Login method. In that case, use the below –
Use pac org who to confirm if you are authenticated into the correct environment.

Here, you are set with your tools. Now, let’s create a project locally.

Setup A Local App Folder

Now, let’s setup a local app folder now that your tools are authenticated and ready.

Run the command to create a Project folder locally and name your app.
Now, once I run this in Terminal on my VS Code, it’ll create the App.
As this looks good, I’ll now go ahead and initialize this in my connected environment.
Using this command pa app init --display-name "Project Profitability Dashboard" --environment-id XXXXXX-XXXX-e9d2-8c94-e577a72007d7
Once you run it in your terminal, it’ll give you this on your browser
Confirm the local build using ls command.

You’ll see the files listed. Now you are all set.

Add Data Source to the Code App

Now, let’s add Data Source to the code App. In this case, it’ll be our Dataverse environment itself –

Use this command pa app add data-source shared_commondataserviceforapps to add the Data source. I’m not using a Connection Reference so it just took my Entra ID.
And I select the connector, it’ll be finally connected. Now, since this is a blank project, just add a dev script using npm install --save-dev vite
It’ll create the same code and you are done. Now, you can continue to talk to Claude Code to build your Code App and run it using pa app run

Now, we’ll see how the App can run and your changes can start panning out!
Part 2 – Code Apps for Dataverse – Part 2 [Updating your Apps and Deployment]

Hope this was helpful!

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AI in Dynamics 365 CE Applications: Transforming Solution Architecting

August 31, 2026August 31, 2026 priyeshwagh777 AI Thought Leadership agentic development, ai in business applications, Claude, Dynamics 365, microsoft copilot

Given my 12.5 years in the industry at this point – where I started my journey from Dynamics CRM 2013 online (and having dealt with some D365 CRM 4.0 on-prem along the way too) – I’ve come a long way from changing XML for SiteMaps to make sure the Calendar is set right for new orgs – features in D365 CRM got added and many features kept getting deprecated [Although the later is less than the former].

The only help I get and also which I offered was treacherous hours and hours spent in making sure the. ‘customer experience’ is top notch as much as the quality of my solutioning.
Now, sitting in later half of 2026 and putting even the Solution Architecting years behind me – I look back in time and gauge what has changed really?

Well, fundamentally things remain the same –

Set up new environments
Implement C# plugins and JS for custom logic
Configure roles, System Settings
Configure behind the scenes for applications like Project Operations, Field Service, Customer Service etc.
Migrate and deploy solutions between environments

…and so on.

But, the medium of doing all the above has changed. That definitely has!

With advent of AI tools – Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, disparate configuration pieces are more connected to each other and to the Developer / Solution Architect sitting in front of the screen on a random Tuesday midnight.

So from a bird’s eye view of things – here’s what is more cohesive, AI-powered and in control which I plan to write further in this series and connect it all together as we sunset 2026 in these relatively newer Agentic development years.

Metadata, Configuration: Dataverse MCP on your AI tools like Claude.
CI/CD: Power Platform Pipelines, Azure DevOps
C# Plugins and Code: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot
End User Guides / Documentation: Claude Design, Figma, Copilot in Office Apps

So in the new few weeks and month, as AI continues to ever-evolve, I’ll share with my audience a framework of bringing together all the applications together with AI to deliver the same high-quality CE applications in an agentic-way.

And it doesn’t stop there – probably years after, there would be something else to replace it. But till then, this areas continue to evolve and take shape bringing from my experience and feedback from the teams and customers I work with in this remaining decade.

Hope this was helpful!

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AI in Business: Starting Your Automation Journey [A Preface]

August 24, 2026August 24, 2026 priyeshwagh777 AI Thought Leadership, microsoft copilot ai, ai in business applications, artificial intelligence, microsoft copilot

So in 2026 as I write this, AI is intrusive to the point that everyone in Management want it because it is believe to work 10x and reduce costs or because everyone is implementing so must we.

And the predicament doesn’t stop there – it continues expand to a point where plans are chalked out to run a department entirely. And organizers scramble to solve the problem directly by introducing AI as a form of “automation” rather than “augmentation”. I pondered on this a lot and this is what I think of it as it stands today.

Although most organizations are way ahead with working AI solutions already and are monitoring for production performance and tuning. But this blog is focussed on someone who’s just arrived to AI conversations and have burnt their fingers in some POCs maybe. Here are my two cents –

Foundation of AI for Business Applications

Here’s how you start – and it’s not building your first agent directly. But are the systems hygienic for your first AI agent to not struggle? Here’s what I mean by that –

Clean your data – Make sure missing Sales or Operations data isn’t cluttering your system, giving unclean and unreliable reporting. Does management completely trust the reports you run today? Get the data right.
Connect your systems – Integrate systems together for not everything – but enough to make sure you don’t duplicate, miss data or rely on manual labor prone to making mistakes. If integrated, make sure integrations work well.

Now extrapolate this at the Org level and you already are starting on a high-trust metadata and data at your org for any AI agents to make sense on.

How to introduce it?

Now that data is clean and systems are connected –

Start small – introduce AI in micro-tasks of your workflows. Use it to generate what your team does obviously. The routine, mundane updates. Repeating tasks which can draw patterns.
With those patterns – form the knowledge base of the AI. Improve AI to feed off of the knowledge base itself. It could be a structured prompt engine or a library that the model has to traverse, process the documents and make sense.
Don’t use it for decision making – use it yourself so you can make a decision – just quicker.

Why do we feel it is not what it is meant to be?

I started off by thinking in a straight line –

I want to get to point B from point A – so, let me implement it and give it to the tech team to do it with some instructions.
Well, it does work – most times. But I’m still not happy with it. And here is the reason –
1. No matter how perfect the answer is.
2. Your judgement in that moment will override always — a confirmation bias or a change in situation suitable at that point in time will make more sense.
3. You tend to take your decision overriding what AI has to offer for you (or rather recommend).
And you dismiss it saying – “It doesn’t work”.

Well, it does work – but it’s giving you an opinion so you could extend yours. It’s not meant to give you your answer, yet. And this is true for most cases if not all.

It’ll be interesting to see how this blog either ages like milk or like wine in coming years. 😊

With this, I kick-start my AI Thought Leadership as a new section and running commentary as I work to get our customers and partners ready and thriving on AI in coming years.

Hope this was helpful!

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Power Apps Vibe Coded Experience [Preview]

May 7, 2026May 7, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center copilot, dynamics 365 crm, power apps, Power Platform, vibe coded experience

Coming from Canvas Apps to a full-fledged vibe-coded solution is the next thing in Power Platform. Let’s see how you can quickly turn things around for your team.

Let’s see how we can do this and what by Microsoft is on offer —

Power Apps Vibe Experience – What is it?

This is a vibe-coded experience provided by Power Platform to provide you a way to quickly prototype any department/use-case based application quickly and roll it out to users.
Here’s how we do it –

Pre-Requisites

Assuming you have Admin access to Power Platform Admin Center, make sure that Copilot in Power Apps (preview) is turned On.
Then, go the the Environment Settings as below then to Features.
Once in Settings, look for Features and look for Enable External Models.

And here’s the Enable External Models which need to be turned on.
Then, navigate to https://vibe.preview.powerapps.com/ to enter the Vibe Coded Experience. And you enter the Portal directly.
Start by describing the App through a prompt like this based on your use case –
Then, it starts to prepare the App and also shows you the progress. The experience will also ask any relevant questions along the way.
Once it has everything it needs, it’ll take you to the progress screen where you’ll see the App being made –
Once the creation of App is created/completed, you’ll see the Plan mode where it describes what the App contents are.
Then, in the Data mode below, you’ll be able to see an E-R diagram and also be able to Add more Tables and then establish relationships to further continue describing the App.
And finally, there’s the App view where you can test the App on the fly with actual data that is connected.
And then you can finally Publish this App.
It’ll show how the App Publishing goes in progress.
And once the publishing is done, you’ll see it this way ready to be used.

In the upcoming blogs, I’ll show case how these can be used and deployed and embedded into.

Here’s what the Microsoft Documentation says – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/vibe/overview?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

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Invoice Schedule Types in Project Operations

March 31, 2026March 31, 2026 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Project Operations invoice billing types in project operations, Project Operations

Blog Post coming on 6th April 2026!

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Time Entry Delegation in Project Operations | [Preview Feature]

March 31, 2026March 31, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations dynamics 365 crm, dynamics 365 project operations, Power Platform, Project Operations

While being out of office, doesn’t it scare you that you missed doing entries for the week and only you need to do it?
Well, now you can plan in advance and let others create Time Entries for you while you cannot.
This is a production-ready feature and here’s how you can use it!

Enable Delete Time Entries Feature in Project Operations

As a System Admin with correct rights, here’s how you enable Time Entry delegation like any other Project Operations settings –

Go to Project Parameters, look for Features and you’ll find one for Time Entry Delegation
Now, it’ll ask you for confirmation.
Then, once this is setup. Notice how the My Work section doesn’t have a Time Entry delegation available previously.
And when you refresh, this area gets added.

Now, you are all set to add someone else as your Delegate.

Add a Delegate

When you see the Delegates area in your My Work section, add a record –

Create a new Delegate record. Select the person who should enter Time Entry on your behalf.
Enter the rest of the details i.e. From Start Date to End Date to control this delegation.

Now, this is done. Within this time period, they can enter time entries on your behalf!

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Price Override in Project Operations | Part 2 [Understanding Change Amount effect]

January 31, 2026March 31, 2026 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations dynamics 365 crm, dynamics 365 project operations, project operations configuration

Continuing from Part 1: Price Override in Project Operations | Part 1 [Inconsistent Price Update], let’s look at the Pricing.

When you entered $250 for the Price Per Unit – you assumed it will update the price to $250 from $225
And what you got it this – $475

Here’s the catch!

Although the wordings of the field convey that it’ll be updated to the absolute price you entered, rather it “added” to the existing Price!!
Hence, 250 + 225 = 475.

So, don’t make the mistake of assuming it’s asking for ‘new price‘, it’s actually asking you ‘how to much to increase or decrease the price by‘

Hope this was useful!

Hope this was helpful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

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Setup Contract for Retainer Schedule

Invoice the Retainers

Consuming the Retainers

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Pushing your App to the Environment

Update Your Changes

Running the App on the Environment

Debug the App on the Environment

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Enable Code Apps in your Power Platform Environment

Setup your VS Code with with Node.js [and Claude Code] to start writing your Code App

Setup A Local App Folder

Add Data Source to the Code App

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Foundation of AI for Business Applications

How to introduce it?

Why do we feel it is not what it is meant to be?

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Like this:

Power Apps Vibe Experience – What is it?

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Blog Post coming on 6th April 2026!

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Enable Delete Time Entries Feature in Project Operations

Add a Delegate

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Here’s the catch!

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