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Apps quickstart

Learn how to get started building an app.

Use natural langage to build apps that are built with React and composed of components, connected resources, and functions. Apps inherit the controls you've created to keep your data safe. Deploy apps on your infrastructure, or on Retool's. Use this guide to begin building.

Getting started​

  1. Navigate to login.retool.com to log in or create a new organization.
  2. From the apps landing page, click Create > App.
  3. (Optional) Click the Model options icon in the prompt box to configure the AI model that you want to use. The defaults are set by your organization admin
  4. Enter your prompt, and watch the agent build your app. Alternatively, you can:
    • Use a starter prompt to explore Retool functionality with a sample app.
    • Convert a classic app to use the new app builder.

High quality app prompts are specific about what data should be used, what components should be placed on the page, and what you want users to be able to do. Refer to the following sections for sample prompts.

Data and analytics experts​

Analytics engineers, data analysts, and BI developers can use Retool to transform data, consolidate fragmented tools, and turn a SQL query into an interactive tool.

Build a data quality review tool. Pull rows from data_quality.flagged_orders in @Snowflake. Show order_id, customer, amount, the rule that fired, and confidence score. Let analysts mark each row as Valid, Invalid (with a reason), or Needs Investigation. The decision and reviewer name should write back to a review_status column with a timestamp.
I need a model evaluation tool for our ML team. Pull the last 200 predictions from our @ml.predictions Databricks table — show input features, predicted label, and confidence. Let reviewers label each one as Correct, Incorrect, or Ambiguous, plus a free-text note. Save labels to ml.review_labels. Add filters for model version and confidence range.

Developer experience advocates​

Developers of internal tools and other advocates for internal developer experience can use Retool to smooth the development workflow.

Build a customer support console for our technical support team. Pull users from our @Postgres Users table, their orders from @order_logs, and active Stripe subscriptions from @Stripe. Search by email or user ID, and let support reps issue a Stripe refund — put the refund call behind a confirmation step that requires typing the amount.
Make me a deploy dashboard. List the last 50 deploys from the @Deployments Postgres table — commit SHA, author, env, status, duration. Add a 'Rollback' button per row that POSTs to /deployments/:id/rollback, but only show it to users in the sre group.

Operations leads​

Revenue operations managers, sales operations analysts, and business system experts can use Retool to accelerate their process without needing to wait on engineers to help them build tools.

Build a customer health dashboard for our CSMs. Pull accounts from Salesforce (filter to renewal in next 90 days), join usage from Snowflake analytics.account_daily_active for the last 30 days, and open Zendesk tickets. Flag at-risk accounts in red. Let the CSM add a note that writes back to the Salesforce account record.
I need a deal desk approval app. Show me Salesforce opportunities where Stage = 'Approval Needed' with discount %, ACV, sales rep, and notes. Approvers should be able to approve (set Stage to 'Approved') or reject with a required reason. Anything over 30% discount needs a second approver.

Explore your app​

Explore your app in the preview canvas, and test out key use cases.

As you test, you might be prompted to approve function runs if they make changes to your data source. Learn more about data in Retool.

You can make targeted changes scoped to a single component on the canvas. Click to open Selection mode. Click on the component you want to change, and prompt the agent to make your edit.

Publish your app​

To publish your app, click Publish in the top right corner of the app builder. Complete the following steps in the modal that appears:

  1. Review the Publish checklist. Retool performs several checks to ensure that your app is ready to publish:
    • All function runs are approved. If there are unapproved functions, click Review functions to view the functions that still need approval.
    • Your changes do not conflict with the published version changes from other users. If there is a new published version of your app, click Integrate changes to ask the agent to resolve the conflict.
  2. Define a descriptive name for the App URL.
    • URLs are constructed in the following format: <orgSubdomain>--<appName>.retool.app.
  3. Choose whether you want to tag this release.
    • Tagging the release means that end users will see this version of the app until a new version is tagged.
    • If you choose not to tag the version, and no other version is tagged, end users will see this version of the app.
    • If you choose not to tag the version, and another version is tagged, end users will continue to see the tagged version.
  4. Choose the folder in which you want your published app to be available, and confirm your selection. All users with use access to the folder you select will be able to use your app.
  5. Click Publish.
  6. Click to copy the link to your published app.

Once you publish your app, your thread is considered closed, and further prompting is disabled. Create a new thread to continue iterating on your app. Learn more about threads.

Next steps​

Continue exploring Retool's app builder.