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Tasks

What an app is

An app is real, running software the assistant builds inside a task — a preview, its code, optionally its own backend, and a settings panel that takes it all the way to a public address.

Most of what the assistant makes is something you read: a document, a deck, a spreadsheet. An app is something you use. Ask for a calculator, a form, a booking page, a dashboard or an internal tool and you get working software — real files, running in a preview beside the task, with an address you can hand to other people once you publish it.

Where it lives: in a task, when apps are switched on for your workspace.

The four views

An app opens in a pane beside the conversation, with four views along the top.

ViewWhat it is for
PreviewThe app, running. Click through it, resize it to a phone, watch the console, point at anything you want changed
CodeEvery file the app is made of, read-only, with a file tree — copy a file, download one, or select lines to ask about them
BackendThe app’s own accounts, data, files and server functions, once it has a backend
SettingsEverything else: name, address, publishing, who can open it, custom domains, search, traffic, security, GitHub

Each of those is covered by its own page:

PageWhat it covers
Building and changing an appAsking for changes, pointing at elements, device sizes, errors and fixes
Design and themesThe sixteen themes, light and dark, your icon, images and sound
Version historyDiffs, names, bookmarks and restoring
Publishing your appAddresses, releases, unpublishing, pinning
Who can open your appPublic, password protected, workspace only
Custom domainsYour own address, DNS records, HTTPS
Search and socialIndexing, metadata, share image, checklist
Traffic and analyticsVisitors, top pages, devices, countries
Security checksAlways-on protections, scans, findings, dependencies
Saving data and backendsSimple storage, accounts, database, files, functions
What your app can useAI, external APIs, email, workspace data
GitHub and exporting codeDownloading the project, pushing and pulling

What an app is made of

A small React project — up to 40 files, none larger than 100 KB, a megabyte in total. It can only import from a vetted set of packages (React, charting, icons, forms, animation, dates and a handful more), which is what stops a generated app from quietly pulling in something nobody has looked at.

You do not edit those files by hand. You ask, the assistant writes — and because it can read the app back, list its files and target one part of one file, changes stay narrow instead of rewriting everything each time.

It belongs to the task

The app is part of the task it was made in, follows that task’s scope, and appears in the reply that created it. Every change — yours by request, or the assistant’s — becomes a numbered version you can look back at and restore.

Finding your apps again

Two places, both outside the task:

The Apps page (/app/apps) lists every app in the workspace with its thumbnail, its icon and when it was last touched, and has a search box.

The sidebar. Pin an app from the pane header and it sits in your sidebar under Apps, ready to open in one click. You can pin up to 20 and drag them into the order you want.

If you cannot see any of this

Apps are a workspace-level feature and can be switched off. Some parts — notably app backends — additionally depend on how your Dhanu deployment is configured. If the assistant says it cannot build an app or cannot set up a backend, that is why, and an administrator can tell you which.

An app is not a mockup. Publishing it puts it on the internet at a real address, with HTTPS, a favicon, search settings and traffic figures. Treat what you put in one the way you would treat any live page.