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Catalyst Docs

Mini apps

A mini app is a small custom page — a tracker, a dashboard, a one-button tool — built on top of your workflows and data collections. You don’t build it by dragging boxes around; you ask the assistant for it in chat, and it builds any workflows it needs, writes the app, and opens it as a live, working preview right there in the conversation.

You can use it immediately — it’s not a link you have to go click. The Expense Tracker below was made by asking for one.

Chat in Catalyst on the left and a live Expense Tracker app open in a side panel on the right: the assistant has summarized the features it built while the running app shows month's spend, an entry count, an add-expense form with category pills, and a category bar chart.

What makes a mini app

Section titled “What makes a mini app”

You ask, it builds

Describe the app in chat. The assistant builds any workflows it needs, writes the app, and opens it live — no canvas, no setup.

Live, not a mockup

The preview is the real app running against your real data. Use it on the spot; iterate by asking (“add a chart”, “make it blue”).

Built on your stuff

An app sits on top of your collections and workflows — the data it reads and the work it runs are things you already have, or that get created for you.

Walled in by design

Every app runs in a secure sandbox and can only reach the collections and workflows you grant it — nothing else.

Two ways to get one

Section titled “Two ways to get one”

You never start from a blank canvas. There are two routes to a working app, and you’ll mostly use the first:

  • Ask in chat — describe what you want and the assistant builds it, opening a live preview in the conversation. This is the main way. See Build a mini app.
  • Open the editor — for an app you already have, click Edit (or start a blank one from the Apps section) to open the full three-pane editor and change it directly. See Editing apps.

Either way you end up with the same thing: a saved app you can open, run, and edit anytime.

Your apps live in Apps

Section titled “Your apps live in Apps”

Every app you make shows up in the Apps section. From there you can open one, edit it (or ask the assistant to), or delete it anytime.

The Apps section in Catalyst showing an Expense Tracker card with its description and the expense_log collection it uses, plus a New App button in the top right.

Deleting an app only deletes the app. The workflows it ran and the collections it read are shared assets you built — they stay exactly where they were, and any other app, chat, or schedule that uses them keeps working. See Data & permissions for what an app can touch and why it’s safe.

Next

Section titled “Next”
Build a mini app The chat flow: ask, watch it build, test the live preview, and iterate by talking.
Editing apps The three-pane editor — Code, live Preview, and Properties — plus Edit with AI.
Data & permissions The collections and workflows you grant an app, and the sandbox that keeps it walled in.
Section titled “Related”