MATLAB Projects and Package Management

This 90-minute workshop shows how MATLAB Projects and MATLAB Package Manager create a consistent development environment for people, continuous integration (CI) systems, and AI agents.

About the Workshop

This hands-on workshop guides you through:

• Open a MATLAB Project to set up the development environment
• Run FlightSensorApp, which has a package dependency
• Install Chart_Examples from File Exchange using MATLAB Package Manager
• Declare Chart_Examples in matlab.toml so MATLAB installs it when the project opens
• Build an .mltbx file to share the app and its supporting files

Open in MATLAB Online

The workshop requires MATLAB R2026b and Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox.

Workshop License

Use the MATLAB Expo 2026 workshop license to start MATLAB for this workshop.

Getting Started

1. In the MATLAB Files panel, double-click matlab.toml to open the project. MATLAB configures the project paths.
2. In the Project tab, select WorkshopGuide.
3. Complete WorkshopGuide.m in order.

Step-by-step instructions are available in:

• WorkshopGuide.m - Interactive plain-text Live Script for completing the workshop in MATLAB
• WorkshopGuide.md - Markdown version for viewing on GitHub or in another editor
• PresentationSlides.pdf - Workshop presentation slides

The guide begins with the app's core workflow and an optional File Exchange capability that is unavailable until Chart_Examples is installed. Use the app Refresh button after installing the package to recheck its availability without closing the app.

The starter matlab.toml includes a commented Chart_Examples dependency template. During the workshop, add the dependency by using the MATLAB Projects UI, uncommenting the template, or running workshopAddPackageDependencyToProject. MATLAB Projects installs declared package dependencies when the project opens.

Workshop Contents

• WorkshopGuide.m - Plain-text live script containing the student workflow
• WorkshopGuide.md - Markdown version of the workshop guide
• PresentationSlides.pdf - Workshop presentation slides
• matlab.toml - MATLAB Project configuration
• src/app/FlightSensorApp.m - Plain-text App Designer app
• src/data/FlightData.xlsx - Flight sensor data used by the app
• src/examples/ExploreVirtualSensorWithChartExamples.m - Chart Examples exploration script
• tests/ - Unit tests for the data-loading, cleaning, model-fitting, and sampling functions
• utils/ - Workshop helpers for adding package dependencies and metadata and restoring the starter project configuration
• buildfile.m - Build Tool tasks for code checks, tests, and building a package

Build a Package from the Project

The starter matlab.toml intentionally does not contain a [[package]] section. During the workshop, create the package configuration by clicking Build Package in the MATLAB Project Toolstrip or running workshopAddPackageMetadataToProject. Only after that configuration exists can you run:

buildtool package

The task creates the .mltbx package file in the output folder configured in the package task. The .mltbx can then be published to a package repository so other users can install the package with MATLAB Package Manager.

Copyright 2026 The MathWorks, Inc.