Tech Talks: Genesis Solution Packaging Kit (SPK) 2.0 and OneStream Developer Studio (ODS) replay is now available!

On this "Developing Developers" edition of Tech Talks, Robb Salzmann walks through what's new in Genesis SPK 2.0 for building and packaging solutions, and Joe Danz shows how OneStream Designer Studio unleashes developers by enabling use of their own developer tools! OneStream software version 9.4 was used in this episode.

Genesis SPK 2.0 and OneStream Developer Studio

• What’s new in Genesis SPK 2.0? Genesis Solution Packaging Kit (SPK) 2.0 builds on SPK 1, expanding it into a full developer-centric workbench that combines methodology and tooling in one place. It couples Genesis with a solution starter template, evolves the former Custom Page Configurator into the new Page Factory, and introduces Advanced Dashboard Layouts — all delivered as injectable Genesis blocks (there are now close to 50 blocks in the Genesis Block Library).
• Why it matters: reducing technical debt The core goal of SPK 2.0 is to speed partners to revenue by reducing technical debt — defined here as the cost of reworking shortcuts later instead of innovating. Using standardized scaffolding and framework objects means a solution can be handed off to another developer in an hour or two instead of days of code review.
• Solution starter template Installing a named instance of Genesis for your solution automatically provides boilerplate code: install/uninstall logic, SQL object creation and teardown, and license key management/validation — so within minutes of creating your instance, you’re writing business logic instead of building scaffolding.
• Page Factory Page Factory generates the individual maintenance units (pages) inside your application, each encapsulating a standards-driven “guided user experience” — the objects needed for that part of your UI, built consistently every time.
• Advanced Dashboard Layouts This Genesis block removes the manual, time-consuming work of building complex dashboard grids, panes, and cards, giving you a visual way to construct dashboard layouts. Blocks can even be nested inside other blocks (an Advanced Dashboard Layout injected into another), enabling complex guided experiences without complex engineering — a topic promised for a dedicated future After Hours episode.
• Where ODS fits in A UI alone isn’t a complete application — the underlying business logic still requires coding in business rules and assemblies. That’s where OneStream Developer Studio (ODS) comes in: Page Factory lays down the dashboard service factory and stubbed-out classes, and ODS is the bridge that lets you develop that code in your IDE of choice.
• What is ODS? ODS is a bidirectional syncing tool — described as “just a syncing tool” at its core — that logs into a OneStream application, finds the workspace assemblies and business rules available to you, and pulls them to your local machine. You edit them in your own IDE (Visual Studio, VS Code, or agentic tools like Cursor or Claude), then push changes back into OneStream, which compiles and validates them server-side. It does not replace the built-in OneStream editor — both coexist, and finance-leaning users can keep using the familiar editor.
• Security and governance ODS fully respects native OneStream security and audit trails: pushes are logged in audit tables just like edits made directly in the platform editor, and you can’t pull or push assemblies/workspaces you don’t have maintenance-group access to. ODS is explicitly not a replacement for source control (Git) — OneStream positions itself as “a finance company,” not a source-control vendor, and defers to tools like Git for that function.
• IDE benefits demonstrated live In the demo, pulling an assembly locally unlocked modern IDE features absent from the OneStream editor: multi-tab navigation, one-click rename/refactor that propagates everywhere, go-to-definition, and full IntelliSense (enabled by downloading a NuGet reference-assemblies package matched to your platform version). A preview-before-push feature — added directly from community feedback — lets you see a diff of exactly what will change before committing. Pushing also triggers a server-side compile; a deliberately broken rule in the demo failed both the local and server builds, showing the safeguards in action.
• .NET version alignment ODS aligns your local project’s .NET version to match your connected platform version (e.g., .NET 8 for 9.2, .NET 10 from roughly 9.3 onward). A single ODS client supports multiple platform versions (9.2+), so you don’t need separate installs for clients on different versions — though you’re responsible for keeping local projects in sync as platform .NET versions evolve.
• XF Projects: packaging and source control XF Projects let you define once which OneStream artifacts (workspaces, dashboard profiles, components, etc.) belong to your solution, then repeatedly extract them — either as a distributable zip (useful for sharing or Solution Exchange submission) or as a raw folder/XML structure suitable for checking into Git, enabling real version control and team collaboration on non-code UI artifacts, not just business rule code.
• CLI and agentic/AI support Every ODS UI action is also available via command line (the ods command, installable alongside the desktop client). A standout feature is the ods agent command, which generates a skill file that teaches AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) how to use the full ODS command set in plain language — e.g., asking an agent to check your connection, list available assemblies, pull one down, and set up reference assemblies for IntelliSense. ODS detects the agent tool in use and places the skill file in the right folder convention (e.g., .claude vs. a generic .agents/skills structure).
• Current limitations (from Q&A) ODS does not provide file locking — concurrent edits to the same rule can still conflict, so some teams work in their own areas and merge via Git before pushing to OneStream. Pipeline/CI integration (e.g., encrypted builds via GitHub/Bitbucket Actions) isn’t yet supported; the CLI is the first step toward that, but headless login is still a missing piece. XF Project load/extract functionality (as opposed to just authoring the file) requires platform 9.4+. Workflows and some other object types aren’t yet supported in ODS — there’s an open IdeaStream request for broader object coverage that the team encourages people to upvote.
• Key Takeaway: Genesis SPK 2.0 and OneStream Developer Studio together form a more complete, standardized “workbench” for solution development — SPK handles UI scaffolding and guided experiences through Genesis blocks, while ODS bridges the business-logic side to modern IDEs, Git-based source control, and AI coding agents, all while preserving OneStream’s native security and audit trail. Both tools are actively evolving based on partner and community feedback submitted via IdeaStream.

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