Multi-instance development with Source Control

We recommend starting app development in an instance representing a staging or development environment; however, an app can be created and protected from any instance of Retool connected to the remote repository (named retool_source in the diagram). This is useful if you have a particular resource that's only accessible from your production environment.

We also recommend using one branch instead of a "Git Flow” branching model. Since you have the fine-grain control to release each protected app independently at the cadence of your choosing, we recommend using a single, protected main branch that each instance points to.

If batching changes across multiple apps is a requirement, we recommend manually coordinating releases to synchronize updates after apps have the latest versions have synced down. If that is insufficient, you could also point your instances to other integration-like branches such as staging and production and manually cherry-pick and merge to batch and promote changes.

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Releases

Releases are exclusive to the Retool instance in which they were created. Creating and publishing releases for an app are not captured in source control, and can be treated as a deploy mechanism. Learn more about Release Management.