Apps glossary
Learn the meanings of app-related terms.
Definitions of apps-related terms. Refer to the main glossary for definitions of terms across Retool.
A
Add UI tab
A tab in the left panel of the app IDE that allows you to search for and add components or modules to your app.
App
A web application built in the app IDE, composed of components, connected resources, queries and logic, and designed to enable users to interact with data.
App IDE
The web-based interface for building web and mobile apps.
App Settings tab
A tab in the app IDE that allows you to change general settings.
Apps landing page
The page that displays a list of recent, published, draft, starred, and trashed apps. Users can explore apps from this page, and create new apps and modules.
Artifact
A snapshot of an app at the time of release. Used when implementing multi-instance releases of protected apps.
Ask AI
An assistant that helps you write queries. You can instruct Ask AI to generate, edit, explain, or fix queries.
Assist
The Retool feature that enables you to generate or edit apps using natural language.
Assist panel
A tab in the app IDE that allows you to access Assist.
B
No glossary entries found.
C
Canvas
The primary workspace in which you build the user interface for your app. The canvas can contain distinct frames, such as the sidebar or header.
Circular dependencies
An error state where two or more properties rely on each other to function. The dependency graph enables Retool to prevent these.
Code Search tab
A tab in the app IDE that includes various options for searching code in your apps.
Code tab
A tab in the app IDE that conains all of the app's queries, transformers, and variables.
Command palette
A search bar in the IDE that includes a host of commands you can use to quickly execcute common actions like opening app settings, creating new queries, or editing component properties.
Component
A prebuilt interface element used to display data or interact with.
Component Tree tab
A tab in the app IDE that contains a hierarchical tree from which you can select, rename, switch, or delete components. You can view and select components regardless of visibility including those within multiview containers, such as Tabbed Container component views. Selecting a component makes it visible and, where necessary, switches a container's view to make it active.
Console tab
A tab in the app Debug Tools that shows a list of errors, warnings, and success messages that relate to your queries, transformers, event handlers, etc.
Current working version
The version that reflects the current state of the app or workflow, reflecting the latest edits.
Custom component library
A set of custom React components that can be reused within Retool apps. Components are authored in React and TypeScript, can leverage public or private npm packages, and are managed as libraries with unique names and metadata. Once deployed, custom components appear in the Add UI tab for easy drag-and-drop use in app building.
Custom CSS
A set of custom style rules that can override and extend the default styling of Retool apps. Can apply on a per-app or an organization basis.
Custom page
A feature available when using external apps that enables organization admins to replace Retool’s login, reset password, signup, and invitation claim pages with Retool apps.
Custom page path
A custom URL path that allows you to access an app at {domain}/app/{custom-url}.
D
Debug tools
A feature of the app IDE that enables you to troubleshoot and fix issues with apps, resources, and queries.
Deprecated component
A component that is no longer supported by Retool. It continues to work in existing apps but should not be used in new apps
Dot notation
A syntax used to access an object's methods or properties.
Drafts
A personal folder for standard users to develop and test apps. Apps in the Drafts folder cannot be shared with other users, and must be published to another folder before it can be shared.
Drawer frame
A type of frame that adds a slide-out container to the right side of your app. It's commonly used to display forms or detailed data for a particular item/user/product/datapoint.
E
Edit mode
The mode of interacting with an app through the app IDE as an editor.
Embedded app
An app embedded within web pages or other apps. Embedded apps enable users to authenticate through the existing authentication system in which the app is embedded, so they don't need to log in twice.
Error reporting
The ability to send logs and error reports on workflows, web apps, and mobile apps with Datadog or Sentry.
Event handler
A mechanism to respond to user interactions and system events without requiring custom JavaScript. You can use event handlers to trigger queries, control components, and perform other actions in response to user interactions.
External app
A web app that is fully white-labeled. You can create a standalone experience that reflects your brand, complete with custom domains, themes, and customizeable product pages.
F
Frame
A layout container that enables you to divide the app canvas into distinct sections in which you add components. Frames provide you with flexible layout options for arranging your app's user interface. You can add frames to pages or use them globally.
G
H
I
Inspector
The interface in the app IDE, located in a collapsible right panel, that enables you to configure app and component settings. Component settings are often organized into Content, Interactions, and Appearance sections. When a particular component is not selected, it contains settings related to the app as a whole, such as URL, shortcut, and max width.
Internationalization (i18n)
A feature that allows you to adapt Retool app content and data for your users across different languages and regions. This includes localizing applications and formatting text, dates, and currencies across different languages. Retool provides default translations for strings in components in several langauges.
J
No glossary entries found.
K
No glossary entries found.
L
Landing page
A feature (available when utilizing external apps) that allows administrators to automatically route end users to specific Retool apps upon login. This routing is based on the user's assigned permission group.
Left panel
The portion of the IDE on the left side of the screen. It contains several tabs for working with components or workflow blocks, writing code, managing releases, and changing app settings.
Legacy component
A component that has been superseded by a newer, separate component, but is still available for use. The newer component provides the same general functionality but works differently.
Live version
The published release of an app or a workflow. If there is no published release, then the live version and the working version are the same.
Localization
A feature of internationalization that enables you to add multi-language support for your application, and format text, dates, and currencies for an international region.
localStorage
A flexible solution for temporarily storing data in the browser. Makes use of the Windows localStorage property.
M
Main frame
A type of frame that takes up the entire canvas area by default.
Media type
The media type that indicates the purpose and format of data (e.g., application/pdf for PDF files).
Mobile layout
A setting in web apps that enables you to make your app responsive for smaller viewport widths.
Modal frame
A type of frame that appears above other content, such as a dialog box.
Module
A collection of components and code that you can build and embed within other apps. Modules enable you to reuse components and code in multiple apps, and modules can pass data to and from the parent app.
Multiplayer
A feature of the app IDE that enables multiple users to make changes to the same app simultaneously.
N
Navbar
A portion of the IDE where you customize the IDE environment and configure high-level app settings.
O
Observability
The ability to monitor Retool capabilities by observing and reporting on app and workflow behavior. Includes capabilities such as error reporting, performance monitoring, user sessions, and webdriver tests.
P
Page
A distinct section of an app with its own code and components. Users switch between pages using event handlers or navigation controls. Retool only evaluates page code or component values when the page is currently in view.
Page scope
Components, frames, and code that can only be referenced within a single page. Retool only evaluates page-scoped objects when the page is currently being viewed.
Pages tab
A tab in the app IDE that allows you to view and manage the pages in your app.
Performance monitoring
The ability to send page load and query traces to Datadog and Sentry
Prompting credit
The unit that Retool uses to track usage of Assist. Prompts that require more complex reasoning or larger outputs use more prompts.
Public links
A link that makes an app available, without authentication, to anyone with the URL.
Q
No glossary entries found.
R
S
Scope
The level of access granted. If you crete a custom OAuth application with which to authenticate, you typically define scopes to give Retool access, such as calendars.read or users.add.
Sidebar frame
A type of frame that is used primarily for building navigation into your apps. This frame is globally-scoped and persist across all pages.
Single Model Provider
A setting that enables Assist users to use a single AI provider instead of the default combination of OpenAI and Anthropic.
Split Pane frame
A type of frame that adds a resizable canvas adjacent to the main frame. It can be used to display a detail view relative to the main frame or split the app for multitasking.
Status bar
An interface that runs along the bottom of the app IDE and contains options to switch environments, view releases, toggle the runtime that powers the app, and access debug tools
T
Ternary operator
Wikipedia: In computer programming, the ternary conditional operator is a ternary operator that is part of the syntax for basic conditional expressions in several programming languages. It is commonly referred to as the conditional operator, conditional expression, ternary if, or inline if. An expression if a then b else c or a ? b : c evaluates to b if the value of a is true, and otherwise to c. One can read it aloud as "if a then b otherwise c". The form a ? b : c is the most common, but alternative syntaxes do exist; for example, Raku uses the syntax a ?? b !! c to avoid confusion with the infix operators ? and !, whereas in Visual Basic .NET, it instead takes the form If(a, b, c).
Theme
A feature that allows users to customize the visual appearance of their applications by defining consistent styles across apps or at the organizational level. Themes control aspects such as colors, typography, metrics (e.g., border radius), and shadows.
Theme Editor
The interface used to create, customize, and manage visual themes for apps and organizations.
ToolScript
A JSX-style markup language built to serialize Retool apps which are protected using Source Control.
Transformer
Reusable blocks of JavaScript code to transform data that can be referenced anywhere in an app.
U
User session
Behavioral data, such as interactions, that occur with an app during a period of activity.
V
W
No glossary entries found.
X
No glossary entries found.
Y
No glossary entries found.
Z
Zero-based numbering
Wikipedia: Zero-based numbering is a way of numbering in which the initial element of a sequence is assigned the index 0, rather than the index 1 as is typical in everyday non-mathematical or non-programming circumstances. Under zero-based numbering, the initial element is sometimes termed the zeroth element, rather than the first element; zeroth is a coined word for the ordinal number zero. In some cases, an object or value that does not (originally) belong to a given sequence, but which could be naturally placed before its initial element, may be termed the zeroth element. There is no wide agreement regarding the correctness of using zero as an ordinal, as it creates ambiguity for all subsequent elements of the sequence when lacking context.