A new AI-powered app builder is now available. Build production-ready React apps using natural language in the app builder or through your favorite coding agent via MCP. Whatever or however you build, everything inherits the security standards your organization has already approved and implemented.

The app builder includes:

• A Chat tab where you describe changes in natural language and an AI agent plans and executes them, with file uploads and per-thread model selection.
• A Data tab that shows the resources connected to your app and the functions that interact with them, with optional approval gates on writes.
• A Code tab that lets you view and edit every file your app uses.
• Support for organization themes, third-party npm packages, and publishing and version history.

Apps run on React 19 and a curated set of supporting libraries.

Admins can use the configuration guide to set up their organization to use the new app builder.

App builders can now defer the initialization of modules until they're viewable to improve the initial loading time of larger apps.

When an app is initially loaded, Retool initializes all code, components, and modules. However, a common use case for modules is including them in conditionally hidden frames, and these modules don't need to be loaded when they are still hidden.

Modules now have a new option in the Inspector: [Beta] Defer evaluation until visible. When a “deferred” module is hidden (either ‘hidden’ state is true, or it is in a hidden frame, or otherwise not being rendered), Retool defers the module's initialization. When the module is shown, Retool invokes the initialization procedure that would typically happen during app startup.

This gives builders more flexibility in how components are loaded in their apps, and large apps load more quickly.

Retool made significant updates that improve Assist's app generation capabilities:

• Improved quality of app generation. Assist has an improved ability to successfully set a wider set of properties across a wider set of components.
• Quicker app generation. Generating an app from scratch is approximately 20% faster.
• Better token efficiency, especially for app editing. Token use has decreased by approximately 40-50%, depending on the change type. Users will notice a decrease in the number of context window issues they encounter.
• Improved support for building forms and using repeatable components inside apps.

READMEs can now be protected for apps that use Source Control. For existing apps that have a README, Retool will add a README.md file to your repository with your next commit. If you are protecting an app for the first time, Retool will include the README.md file automatically.

Retool now uses a service worker in the browser to cache the application frontend so that pages load faster when you revisit them. The service worker uses a stale-while-revalidate strategy: it serves the previously cached version of a page immediately, then fetches the latest version from Retool in the background. If a newer version is available, Retool automatically refreshes the page so you see the latest changes.

The cache is version-aware and automatically invalidates after a Retool upgrade, so you always end up on the latest version of the platform without needing to clear your browser cache. A hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R) bypasses the cache and loads the latest version directly.

The service worker is enabled by default on cloud instances and on self-hosted versions 3.334-stable and later. Admins can disable it from Settings > Beta if they need to diagnose page load issues in their organization.

Newly created apps now have their Max width value set to 1200 px by default. This change improves usability and responsiveness.

Existing apps are unchanged. If you want to adjust the maximum width of your app, navigate to the Inspector and adjust the Max width setting in the Spacing section.

Retool now supports controls for configuring your app theme while prompting Assist.

• Free and Team plan users can choose between light or dark mode and select an accent color.
• Business and Enterprise plans support organization-level theming. Alternatively, users can select a theme preset.
• All plans can configure an app theme via the prompt. Be very clear and specific about your design intent. For example, "Create a dark mode theme with blue accent colors", or "Update the theme to match the Acme brand colors and style."

For Enterprise and Business plans, Retool now allows admins to control access to Assist and its Ask and Build modes. Organization admins can use roles and permissions to create roles and edit roles with one of the following permissions:

• Use Assist with Ask and Build mode
• Use Assist with Ask mode only
• No access to Assist

By default, all users have access to Assist and both Ask and Build mode through a preconfigured role. This role is called Assist Role or Editor, based on when your organization was created. Organization admins can edit these roles, or they can create new roles with more restrictive permissions.

This change is valuable for organizations that need to limit or prevent Assist usage to specific populations of users. For example, admins might wish to restrict Assist usage to user groups who do not have access to sensitive data or PII. Alternatively, admins could restrict access to all user groups except for a pilot group testing AI tools.

Beginning in the Q3 2026 stable release, self-hosted instances using the multiplayer feature must set the LICENSE_KEY environment variable on the multiplayer service container. While this environment variable is not yet required, Retool recommends setting it now to avoid any service interruptions.

Assist now supports the ability to create and edit multipage apps. Previously, Assist could only work with one page at a time.

Assist can now:

• Plan and build a multipage app from scratch.
• Create, edit, and rename pages.
• Move queries and code between global and page scopes.
• Create globally-scoped frames and components, such as Navigation, to help users move between pages.
• Identify and correct page scope errors.

While Assist is generating, navigating between pages is disabled to prevent errors.