App Builder FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about App Builder.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
App Builder Overview.
Setup
Does App Builder need to be enabled or licensed before anyone can use it?
There is nothing to license. App Builder comes with every edition. On a plan that includes it (every edition, Platform Free and above) it is on unless an administrator turns it off in Admin → Apps → All Apps; otherwise an administrator turns it on there. Building and trying apps is free, and there is no per-employee charge. Where mini app packs are switched on (our shared cloud), each published mini app is counted in a pack that follows your live apps; custom apps are not counted. Turning App Builder on shows no built app to anyone: every app starts unpublished until an administrator or App Builder admin publishes it. AI tokens the builder spends stay on the shared platform AI-credits meter and are not billed separately.
Who can build apps, and who can only monitor?
Three tiers. A global administrator can do everything: create and edit mini apps, build, edit and deploy custom apps, manage API keys, and change settings. The composer tier — governed by the Who can create mini apps setting on App Builder → Settings (the Who can create mini apps card) — can compose, edit, and start mini apps from templates, and sees the mini apps they created on Your apps: the default admits everyone with the Manager role (plus admins and app-admins). A team lead with the Member role is not in it until you choose Managers and admins, plus anyone with direct reports; you can also widen it to everyone or narrow it to app-admins only. A delegated app-admin — granted from Admin → Apps → All Apps — can monitor Your apps, publish and unpublish apps there, remove a mini app or retire a custom app, browse Templates, view Analytics, and retry loading a failed app. Code builds and Settings stay global-admin everywhere. Whoever builds a mini app is an admin of that app: they can change its settings, its sharing and its history, and open Settings in Edit app. Publishing it stays with App Builder admins unless you widen Who can publish mini apps on App Builder → Settings to the people who administer an app — then they publish and unpublish it themselves. Anyone else who built an app asks for it with Ask an admin to publish on the app’s own page (also on Edit app → Settings → Access & publishing, its row in Your apps, its Edit with AI page and on the phone), where they can also see that they asked and withdraw the request.
Can my managers create mini apps without me granting each one access?
Yes — that is the default for everyone with the Manager role. Who can create mini apps (App Builder → Settings) ships set to Anyone with the Manager role or above, so they can open App Builder’s home, see the mini-app and template cards, and compose — with no per-person grant. People who run a team but have the Member role are not included: choose Managers and admins, plus anyone with direct reports to add them without leaving anyone out. Set it to Everyone with access to the app and any member can (the office manager who needs a visitor log builds it without asking); set it to App admins only to require an explicit grant again. Granting an app a capability — email outside OneMango, approval requests, a public form or a kiosk — stays with App Builder admins: anyone else who composes leaves those out of a new app (a template’s email and approval rules are left out for them when it is created, and a template with a public form or kiosk is created by an App Builder admin), and a change that adds one later goes to the App Builder admins to approve.
I granted someone app-admin access but they can’t build a custom app — is that a bug?
No. Building a custom app deploys code and Settings governs unattended AI spend — both require the global-admin tier. A delegated app-admin sees Home, Your apps, Templates, and Analytics; they can publish and unpublish apps from Your apps, remove a mini app or retire a custom app there, and compose mini apps (the composer tier admits app-admins). The surfaces match the actions each tier can take, so nothing they can click will bounce them.
Where did the Build, Compose, and Builds tabs go?
They were removed from the left rail on purpose. Tabs are now places — Home, Your apps, Templates, Analytics, Settings — and the verbs live in the Create fork on the Home page: Mini app, Custom app, and Start from a template. Build history moved onto Your apps and the Recent builds card on Home. Every old URL still works; only the tabs changed.
Mini apps vs. custom apps
Should I create a mini app or a custom app?
Start from what the thing is, not from how it should be built. If you are tracking, counting, or logging records — supplies on a shelf, visitors at a desk, equipment on loan, vehicle inspections — that is a mini app: no code, reviewed on a plain-language approval card, and running the same day. If you need custom screens, unusual logic, or an integration with an outside system, that is a custom app and AI writes real code for it.
You do not have to get this right up front. The create fork asks in those terms rather than by technology, and the two paths cross-recommend each other — start describing a tracker in the code builder and it will point you at the faster path.
What is actually created when I approve a mini app?
The app and what it owns: its lists with your fields, the saved views you approved, its rules, and — if the plan included one — a live board. They are registered as a marketplace app with its own slug, icon, launcher entry, and permissions, running at /apps/<slug>. No code is generated and nothing is deployed — a mini app is lists, views and rules the app itself owns, so its records, views and rules live inside the app. That is why a mini app is live in minutes.
Do mini apps show up in the public app directory?
No. Mini apps are private to the tenant that created them. They never appear in the public MangoApps directory or in another business’s marketplace, and there is nothing to submit — listing an app for other businesses exists only for custom apps. Publishing a mini app (next question) makes it live inside your own company, nowhere else.
Are my mini apps visible to employees straight away?
No. Every app you build — mini or custom — starts unpublished: only the person who built it, your administrators, App Builder admins and anyone given a role on the app can open it, so you can try it with real records before anyone else sees it. To take it live, an administrator or App Builder app-admin presses Publish — on the app’s own page, on Edit app → Settings → Access & publishing, or on its row in App Builder → Your apps — which shows it to everyone (where you widened Who can publish mini apps, the app’s own admins can too); to limit it to some groups, add a visibility rule from Admin → Apps → All Apps instead. If you built it but cannot publish, press Ask an admin to publish on the app’s own page, on Access & publishing or on its row in Your apps — it then says that you asked, offers Withdraw request, and tells you if an admin declines; an admin can Approve and publish or Decline request in the same places. Unpublish — on Access & publishing or its Your apps row — takes a live app back to the person who built it, your administrators, App Builder admins and anyone given a role on the app — except that groups it is shared with keep it until their visibility rule is removed in Admin → Apps → All Apps.
Do I need Power Tables and Live Boards licensed separately?
No, and you do not need to turn them on. A mini app’s records belong to the mini app itself, so it works with neither app enabled, and approving one switches nothing else on for the business.
What a mini app can and cannot do
What can a mini app’s rules actually do?
The always-on palette is four actions: update a field on the record, notify a person, open a task, and send a scheduled digest of what a saved view matches. Recipients come from a fixed vocabulary — the record’s filer, the app’s creator, a person-field on the record (an assignee), that person’s manager, a role, or a team — never a free list.
Four more powers exist only as capability grants the approval card disclosed and you approved: send email to an email-address field stored on the record (one address, rate-capped), request approval from a named approver before something proceeds, public form (a form at a tokened link, the public form link), and kiosk capture (a shared-tablet kiosk where a badge tap identifies the employee — see the kiosk question below). Granting one is an App Builder admin’s: when someone else’s change adds one — from Edit with AI or Ask AI — it goes to the App Builder admins as a request, listed under Requests on Edit app → Settings → Access & publishing and in their Needs you, and the app changes only when one of them approves it. Whoever asked is told the answer, with the admin’s reason for a decline, and can withdraw it until then. A rule added by hand under Automations can email or ask for approval only once the app has that grant, unless an App Builder admin adds it. You can revoke any of them later from the edit loop, and the revocation card names everything that stops working. The AI never drafts, at any tier, a webhook, a rule that deletes or archives rows, an AI step, or an approval nested inside an approval. An app’s admins can still add the first three by hand under Automations in Edit app.
Can I get an alert 30 days before something expires?
Yes. A mini app’s triggers are a record was created, a field changed, and on a schedule — a scheduled rule binds to a saved view and sends a digest of everything the view currently matches. So “every Monday, message me what expires in the next 30 days” is one rule: a view filtered to the expiry window plus a scheduled digest to you. The digest is one summary message, not one message per row, so a big backlog cannot flood anyone.
Can one mini app cover two linked tables?
Yes — up to three. Describe owners, pets, and stays and the drafter composes three linked tables, connecting them with reference fields (a stay points at its pet, a pet at its owner) and giving every table its own page. Describe more entities than fit and it folds the extras into fields on an existing table — and the approval card says exactly where the fourth list went, so you approve what actually happened. A mini app can also hold a reference to another mini app’s records, which is the platform’s answer for shapes bigger than one app.
Can the edit loop rename or remove things, or only add?
Both directions. Adding: fields, views, rules, pages, a linked list, a board, a quick-update form, a public form. Changing and removing: rename a field, remove a field, remove a page, change or remove a saved view, edit a workflow field’s allowed status moves, and revoke a capability. Removals refuse honestly instead of half-working — you cannot remove a list’s only page, and an app always keeps at least one page. An app’s admins can also add, rename or delete fields on its Fields page, open, rename or delete its saved views on its Views page, and bring records in from its Import data page; splitting a list or moving records between lists is not something any page does.
How do I choose which questions a mini app’s request form asks, and ask some only sometimes?
Every list in a mini app has a request form: the questions someone answers when they add a record. Open Edit app from the app’s Manage menu and choose Data: it lists every field of the list, the ones on the form first in the order they are asked. (On an app from MangoApps, which has no Edit app, an admin of the app opens App settings, finds the card named after the app’s records — Request form in an app whose records are requests — and presses Set Up the Form.) On Data, Add a Field adds one and the pencil beside a field opens it to change its name, type or choices; a field is deleted, or brought back after a delete, on the Fields page.
The page lists the questions On the form in the order they are asked. Drag a question, or use its up and down arrows, to move it. Fields Not on the form are listed below. Select a question to see its settings. Take Off the Form moves it down to the fields not asked, Preview shows the real Add panel with your unsaved choices, and Save Form keeps them. Each Save is kept in History, so Restore can put the form back as it was.
Under When it’s asked, a question is asked Always, or only when another answer calls for it: beside Ask only when, press the field it depends on. For a dropdown, choose is any of or is none of and tick the answers: ask for Artwork only when Type is Print. For any other field, choose is answered or is empty (a checkbox: is ticked or isn’t ticked): ask for the event details only when Event date is answered. A number can also be compared with a value (is over or is under) and a date with a fixed day (is after or is before): ask for a reason only when Amount is over 500. A comparison asks nothing until its field is answered. A day relative to today, such as “overdue”, can’t be asked.
- Any field can decide whether another question is asked, except a lookup, a file or a counter: a dropdown by its answers, the rest by whether they are answered, and a number or a date also by being over or under a value, or after or before a day. Conditions on more than one field must all hold.
- Questions can chain: a question asked only sometimes can decide another question too (Type, then Print size, then Paper). Two questions that wait on each other are refused by name, so one of them has to be asked without a condition.
- A required question can be asked only sometimes too: it is required whenever it is asked, and never when it isn’t.
- When a question depends on a field that isn’t on the form, saving adds that field to the form and says so.
- When a question is hidden, the questions that depend on it are hidden too, and its answer is cleared when a change hides it: an add or edit in the app or on a phone, a drag on the board, a bulk edit, an automation, the API or Ask AI. The board and a bulk edit say which answers were cleared.
- An import keeps the answers the file gives. When some lines give an answer their record’s form wouldn’t ask, the column-matching screen says how many and lets you Keep them, as the file gives them or Clear them — the record keeps only what its form asks; the finished import says what it cleared.
- A phone can’t attach files. A required file asked only on another answer doesn’t stop someone adding a record on a phone: when that answer is picked, the form says the file is attached on a computer, the record is saved with the file still to add, and its page shows To add until someone attaches it.
- A record’s page, its printed sheet and the phone leave out a question the form doesn’t ask for that record when it holds nothing; one it still holds is shown.
- When you ask Ask AI to change a record, its confirmation says which answers the change would clear because the form no longer asks them.
- Edit with AI and Ask AI can change when a question is asked for a field added on the list by hand, as well as for the app’s own fields. When Edit with AI makes an app it may write a line of help under a question; the review card shows it, and the Request form page changes it.
Help shown under the question is a line of guidance shown under it when someone adds a record, on a computer and on a phone: “Say who it’s for and where it will be used.” Up to 300 characters.
Heading above this question starts a section: the question and the ones after it, up to the next heading, sit under that heading when someone adds a record, such as Delivery or Payment. A heading whose questions are all hidden for the answers given is hidden too. Up to 80 characters. In the list, a question asked only on another’s answer is drawn indented under it.
Required sets whether the question must be answered: Not required, Required whenever it’s asked, or Required only when a dropdown holds one answer. The question’s row says which. A field that belongs to the mini app’s design is changed in the design too, and its history keeps the change, so only the person who created the app or an App Builder admin can change it — here, in the field’s Edit drawer or with the Required switch on the Fields page; anyone else sees the setting and who can change it.
Fill in with starts a question with an answer: a Person field can start as the person adding it, and a Date field as today’s date. A field that isn’t on the form can still be filled in later: editing a record shows it under More fields.
Edit with AI and Ask AI can change the form too, in plain words: “Only ask Artwork when Type is Print”, “Only ask for the venue when Event date is filled in”, “Add a hint under Brief”, “Don’t ask for the brief when someone adds a request”. The change is shown before it is applied, and a question another depends on joins the form with it.
Can a field be required only for some records?
Yes. A field can be required only while a dropdown field holds one answer: Artwork, say, required once Type is Print. Choose it under Required on the request form page (the “Required only when” line for Type is Print), or ask Edit with AI — or Ask AI — in plain words (“Make Artwork required when Type is Print”). The request form and the app’s Fields page then show “Required when Type is Print” beside the field.
The rule is checked on every save, imports included: a record whose Type is Print and has no Artwork is refused, wherever it comes from. So when the request form asks Type, it asks Artwork too, and nobody is refused over a question they weren’t shown.
A required field is required whenever it is asked. Use Ask only when on the request form to ask it only for print requests, and it is required for those and not asked for the rest, on every door: the form, the board, an import, the API and Ask AI. The request form page refuses only a condition that hides a field exactly when it is required, and says which.
What happens to an answer when the question stops being asked?
It is cleared. Change Type from Print to Video and Artwork, asked only for print requests, is emptied, whether the change came from the form, a drag on the board, a bulk edit, an automation, the API or Ask AI. The board and a bulk edit say which answers were cleared, and the record’s history shows the change. A change that sets a hidden question’s answer itself keeps that answer, and so does a field with Allowed moves, whose answer only a move it allows can change. An import keeps the answers the file gives.
If I rename a dropdown choice, what happens to the records that already have it?
They get the new name. Rename the choice in the field’s Edit panel on the app’s Fields page (or ask Edit with AI), and it is renamed everywhere it is used: on the records that hold it, in the saved views that filter on it, in the rules that compare or set it, in a field required once that choice is picked, in the request form’s conditions, and in the app’s design, so Edit with AI sees the new name too. A choice you remove instead stays on the records that already hold it, and a view filtering on it still finds them.
Can people without OneMango accounts submit records to a mini app?
Yes, if the app holds the Public form grant. The approval card discloses it in plain words (“anyone with the link can submit — no sign-in”), and once approved the app serves a public form at a tokened link, the public form link in the app’s settings — post it at the gate, print it as a QR code, or email it to suppliers. Submissions are honeypot-protected and rate-capped per form per hour. Fields the app’s own rules set (a governed Status, say) are never offered on the public form — outsiders state facts, the app runs the workflow. Public submissions land as ordinary records, so views, boards, rules, and approvals all see them. To choose which questions the public form asks, in what order, with help under a question and headings over its parts, press Set Up the Form beside the link, or Public form at the top of Edit app → Data. It offers only text, number, dropdown and date fields, asks each question every time, and keeps every required field on it.
Can employees use a shared tablet instead of their phones — a cafeteria register, a tool crib?
Yes, if the app holds the kiosk capture grant. Its settings page shows a kiosk link: open it once on the tablet and it becomes the kiosk — tap your badge → pick what applies → Done, and the screen resets for the next person. The tablet’s USB or Bluetooth badge reader “types” the badge number (the same RF IDeas-style readers used for workstation tap-in); a QR-coded badge works with a 2D scanner or the tablet camera, and typing the badge number works too. The kiosk is badge only — an employee number is refused, because a number is printed on paperwork while a badge has to be in hand — and every record it writes names the badge’s owner in the person field and the change history. Set Up the Form beside the kiosk link (or Kiosk form at the top of Edit app → Data) chooses the questions asked after the tap, their order, help and headings. A badge counts when it matches the Badge ID on the employee’s profile; fill that by tapping the badge on the profile’s Badge ID box, or through the user import. “New link” in the app’s settings unpairs every tablet at once; “Turn the kiosk off” closes the door while the app keeps running. The Cafeteria Meal Log template ships with a kiosk.
Can a badge tap fill in the person on an ordinary record, not just at a kiosk?
Yes. Turn on Identify by badge tap for any person field (the app’s Fields page → edit the field; the composer’s plan carries it as badge: true). The record form then shows a badge box above the people picker — a tap or a camera scan of the badge’s code selects the person, exactly as searching would. Typing a colleague’s badge number in that box works too, so this is a convenience, not a lock; the kiosk is the surface that insists on the badge.
I revoked the public form — is my printed QR code garbage now?
No, and this is deliberate. Revoking the public form kills its link immediately: the form 404s and nothing can be submitted. But the token survives the revocation, so re-granting the capability revives the SAME link — the QR code taped to the gate works again without reprinting. If you want a genuinely new link (say the old one leaked), click New link beside the public form link in the app’s settings instead. Turn the link off there ends the old link for good too: the link you create afterwards is a new one.
Can a mini app require a manager’s sign-off before something proceeds?
Yes, with the request approval grant. The plan names who approves in the same vocabulary as notifications (a role, a person-field’s manager, and so on), and the card spells out what happens on approve and on decline — those follow-up actions are part of what you review. The approval itself is the platform’s real approval flow: the approver gets a proper request with a human-readable summary, and the decision is recorded on the record.
What is the quick-update form, and why can someone with no table access use it?
It is one narrow door: identify a single record by its code, and report a new number for one field. The confirmation names the record and shows the movement — 12 → 9, not just “saved” — and an optional note lands in that row’s change log alongside every other change.
It is safe to expose that widely precisely because it is narrow. It cannot create records, browse or read the table, touch any other field, or be pointed at a different table — every one of those is fixed by the app’s definition, never by the request. So a member who cannot read the app’s records can still open the mini app, use the door, and see an honest notice about what they cannot see, rather than a silently empty grid.
I deleted a view the app created — what happens now?
It stays deleted. What a later change can do depends on where the app came from, and the app’s settings page says which:
- A MangoApps app — one MangoApps ships and keeps updating, not a copy you started from a template — receives those updates, and they only ever add pieces — a later version never brings back something you deliberately removed, and everything else in the app keeps receiving updates as normal.
- An app built in your business — including one you started from a template, which is your own copy — is changed by its admins on its Fields and Rules pages, and with Edit with AI, which can also rename, retype or remove fields, change whether they’re required, and change or remove saved views — and lists each change on its review card before anything is applied. A field that holds no values can change to any type Add field offers; one holding values keeps every value (text, a choice list, a number or a date, and a person field text or a choice list of names), and a link can’t become a file — the field’s Edit drawer offers Add a File field for that. Nothing else overwrites your renames or added fields, and a field you removed is never brought back.
In an app built in your business, deleting a view — from the menu at the end of its row on the app’s Views page, from View Options on its list, or by asking Edit with AI — takes it out of the app’s design too, and deletes no records. A page list or summary card that showed the view lists every record instead, and the confirmation says which before you delete. A view the app’s leaderboard ranks, a rule runs on, a board shows or the scheduled export sends stays until that is changed: Delete names it and where to change it.
Renaming anything is always safe (views, rules, and the board reference fields by ID). A deleted field keeps its values for 7 days: press Restore beside it under Deleted fields on the app’s Fields page and it comes back into the app with its values, while the pages, views and rules that changed when it was deleted stay as they are now. After 7 days it’s gone for good. To get a deleted view back, open History in Edit app and restore to before the change that deleted it: it comes back with the page lists, summary cards and rules that used it. Asking Edit with AI for it instead makes a new view that nothing else uses. Turning the app off and on again does not re-create it.
What happens to a mini app’s records when I remove it?
They go with it. Remove on the app’s row in Your apps (or on its Edit with AI page, when its setup failed) takes the lists the app created out of service at once, and deletes them and every record in them 7 days later. The confirm says how many records that is. To keep a copy, export them first from the app’s Import & export page, which the app’s administrators and Power Tables administrators can open — the confirm points you there when you can (an app that is turned off is turned on first: its pages don’t open while it is off). Until the 7 days are up, an administrator, or someone with Manager access to a list, can restore it from the Archived tab in Power Tables (Power Tables has to be turned on in Admin → Apps → All Apps) — it comes back as an ordinary table there, not as the app, and the app’s rules on it stay paused until someone resumes them. The message after Remove gives the date, and says you can restore them when you are one of the people who can.
A list the app took over from Power Tables, rather than created, was yours before the app and stays in Power Tables, with the app’s rules on it paused. A mini app that MangoApps ships keeps all its lists, since it can be installed again. Apps removed before this changed kept their lists, and those are still in Power Tables.
What happens to a custom app’s records when I retire it, and how do I bring it back?
They are kept. Retire in the app’s ⋮ menu on Your apps switches the app off and takes it out of your people’s launcher, but the app stays listed on Your apps (as Not deployed) with its record count, and nothing it holds is deleted. People who open an old link to it are told it is not enabled. To bring it back, a full administrator opens its ⋮ menu → Edit with AI, which loads the files it last ran, and presses Update app: it is deployed again with every record it had, and comes back unpublished — try it from Open in its ⋮ menu, then Publish it when it is ready.
If I start from a template, do I get updates to that template later?
No. A template compiles a copy. From the moment it is created the app is yours, fully editable, with no upgrade tie back to the source — the app’s settings page names the template it came from and says exactly this. The template shelf lists the platform’s templates (fields, views, rules and pages together) and your workspace’s own mini apps that you can open, as a starting point for a copy.
I drafted a mini app but navigated away — did I lose it?
No. Drafts are saved automatically the moment a plan comes back, so drafting does not have to be done in one sitting. Resume or discard them from the Your open drafts card on the compose page. Drafts are per-admin working notes, not a shared surface, and approving a plan settles its draft.
Permissions and access
Why can’t my employees see the custom app I just deployed?
A newly deployed custom app starts unpublished — only you, your administrators, App Builder admins and anyone given a role on the app can open it. To roll it out, press Publish on its row in App Builder → Your apps, or scope it to specific groups with a visibility rule from Admin → Apps → All Apps. Until you publish, employees cannot see it in the app launcher or navigate to it. Mini apps work the same way.
Can employees change settings in a deployed app?
No. Settings inside a deployed custom app are restricted to administrators. Employees can use the app — view records, create records, submit forms — but cannot change its configuration.
Who can change a mini app’s settings?
Someone holding an app-admin grant on that mini app, or a Power Tables admin. Each mini app is a real marketplace app, so a global admin can delegate administration of one specific mini app without handing over App Builder itself. That person can rename the app’s vocabulary, print QR labels, manage its fields, and switch the app off. Who can use the app is a separate question, governed by the mini app’s own audience — not by Power Tables’ audience.
Day-to-day
How do I edit an app that is already deployed?
For a custom app: open the build session from Build history or click Edit with AI on the app in Your apps. Describe the change in the conversation. The builder drafts a plan and pauses for your approval before writing code, the same way it does for a new build. After you review the changes, click Deploy or Update to push them live. Version history keeps the previous state one restore away.
For a mini app: press Edit with AI at the top of any of its pages, which opens on the page you were looking at (or use Edit with AI in Edit app, or on its row in Your apps), and describe the change — add, rename or remove. It opens inside Edit app, beside its tabs. The proposed change renders on its own approval card, and applying it bumps the app’s version. There is no deploy step — the change is live when you approve it. You can also ask Ask AI for the change in the same words (“Add a Priority dropdown to Design Requests”): it drafts the same change, shows it — with what a removal takes away and any permission the change grants — and applies exactly that change only after you say yes. Rename, move, or choose who sees a page from the row menu on the Pages list, and rename the app itself under Settings in Edit app.
You can also lay a mini app’s pages out by hand. Open the app’s Manage menu and choose Edit app (or Edit this page on the page you are looking at). The Pages tab lists every page; Edit Layout shows a page’s sections top to bottom — a list, a board, a calendar, a chart, cards, numbers, buttons or a message — each with its own settings: which records it shows, which field a board makes columns from, what a chart adds up and whether it is drawn as bars, a line or a pie. Move a section up or down, remove it, or pick a kind under Add a section; Save Page keeps it. A page shows one list and at most 5 sections, and an app at most 5 pages. Add a Page starts a new page with a list of the records.
Does a change I make in Edit app show up in the app straight away?
No. What you change on the Pages tab — a page’s layout, a new page, or renaming, moving or removing one — is saved as a draft, and the app stays as it is until you publish. The bar at the top of Pages says how many changes are waiting and who made the last one. Preview opens the app as the draft would make it, with the records you can see; only people who can change the app’s design see the draft. Preview as Someone, under the pages, opens the app as one of the people who can open it sees it — their pages and the records they can see — for someone who can change its design and sees every record of its lists; opening a record, and anything you change, is still as you. Review and Publish lists what publishing changes before it does, and Publish Changes puts it all in the app at once. Discard Draft drops it. Everyone who can change the app’s design shares one draft.
The draft keeps the changes you made, not a copy of the app, so it always shows the app as it is now with your changes on top: a field or page someone adds meanwhile appears in it, and a page renamed meanwhile keeps your changes. Publishing makes your changes to the app as it is then. The review names any page the app also changed since your draft began, and any of your changes that no longer applies — say, to a page someone removed — which publishing leaves out. Each change you publish is kept in History, marked as published from a draft, with who drafted it when that was someone else. If the draft or the app changes after you open the review, publishing asks you to review it again. Edit with AI and Ask AI still change the app as soon as you approve, and fields, rules and settings change the app when you save them; removing a page together with its list changes the app at once too, so it waits until the draft is published or discarded.
How do I change a mini app’s rules?
Open Edit app from the app’s Manage menu and choose Automations. It lists the app’s rules in the order they run, each with when it runs and what it does. New Rule adds one; a rule’s name opens its page, where Edit changes when it runs, what it checks and what it does, Pause and Resume turn it off and on, and the ⋮ menu deletes it. Drag a rule, or use its arrows, to change the order. In an app with more than one list, pick the list above its rules.
A rule change applies as soon as you save it — a rule has nothing to preview, so it doesn’t wait in the draft the Pages tab keeps. Each change is kept in History, so Restore can put the rules back as they were; pausing or resuming a rule from Settings › Health is kept there too. A paused rule stays paused in a copy of the app. Edit with AI and Ask AI can add a rule, and rename, pause, resume or delete one when you name it, or change when it runs, what it checks or what it does: the rule keeps its run history and its place, and Edit with AI’s review, like a request waiting for an App Builder admin, shows it as it runs now and as it will. A rule that notifies someone by name other than you, or has a step a new rule can’t have (a web call, an AI step, an “is one of” check, an every-few-minutes schedule, an email to a typed address), is changed on its page.
Can I undo a change to a mini app?
Yes. Open Edit app from the app’s Manage menu and choose History. It lists every change to the app’s design, newest first — what changed, whether it was made with Edit with AI, Ask AI, by hand or by a restore, who made it and when. Restore to Before This shows what restoring brings back and what it doesn’t before anything changes; Restore then saves the app as it was, as a new version you can restore from too.
A restore brings back the pages (what each shows, its name, order and audience, the page that opens first, and pages added or removed since), the fields’ names (renamed in Edit with AI, Ask AI or a field’s own Edit panel) and whether they must be filled in, the views’ names, filters and order (a view deleted since comes back as the app’s design had it, with the page lists, summary cards and rules that used it — not changes made to it in View Options, nor the alerts people had on it), the app’s name and description, and the rules: a rule changed, turned off or moved since is set back as it was, one deleted since is added back with its recent runs and the tasks it created, and one added since is deleted. A rule that uses a field or view removed since isn’t brought back, and changes made before the app’s history kept its rules don’t change the rules back. A restore never touches records, so it doesn’t remove a field added since or bring back one removed since — a removed field comes back with its values from Deleted fields on the Fields page for 7 days — and it doesn’t change back a field’s type or choices, the app’s icon, or a list added or removed since (nor the app’s name for changes made before its history kept it). The request form is set back too — its questions, their order, when each is asked, its fill-ins and help — except a question on a field removed since; a form saved before the app’s history kept its forms isn’t changed back. The review page names each of those that differs, with where to change it. Only the person who created the app or an App Builder admin can restore; anyone who can edit the app’s pages can read its history. Changes made before the history was kept aren’t listed.
What does the plan-approval step look like?
For a custom app, the builder drafts a plan listing the record types, screens, files, and capabilities the app will include, then pauses. For a mini app, the approval card lists every table with its fields and who can write to it, each saved view and what it filters to, each automation and what it does, the pages, the board, the quick-update form — and, in their own block, any capability grants the app needs (a public form, outbound email, approvals), each explained in plain words, because approving the card is what grants them. In both cases you can revise, edit, or decline before anything is created, and in both cases the plan is re-validated on the server when you approve it — so what you approved is what you get.
Can I attach screenshots or documents when describing an app?
Yes, in the custom-app builder. You can attach up to 5 images per message, each up to 10 MB. Accepted formats are PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP. The mini-app composer is text-only — you describe what you want to track in a sentence or two.
How do I save a build as a reusable template?
After a successful custom-app build, click Save as template in the builder. The template captures the original description and the approved plan specification, and is scoped to your business. You can also create templates manually from the Templates shelf. System templates (the curated gallery) are read-only, but you can import one as an editable draft. Mini-app templates are platform-provided and appear at the top of the same Templates page.
How do people use a mini app from the shop floor?
Two ways, neither of which needs an app install or a scanner. Print QR labels from the app’s Manage menu gives you a sheet of one code per record; scanning a label with a phone camera opens that record’s mobile card with − / + steppers. Or send people straight to the app’s quick-update door, where they type the code and the new number. Both land in the same audit trail as every other change.
When something looks wrong
My app stopped loading — what happened?
This applies to deployed custom apps. When one fails to load, App Builder records the failure. After 3 consecutive failures, the app is quarantined and stops being loaded for users entirely. You will see a health alert in your Notifications if alerts are on. From Your apps, you can retry loading the app, or open its build session with Edit with AI and use Fix with AI to repair the code. Rolling back to an earlier deployed version is on the app’s page under Admin → Custom Apps.
The builder hit its iteration limit and paused — what do I do?
Click Continue. Each click doubles the builder’s iteration budget for that session. If Auto-continue long builds is on in Settings (the default), medium and rich builds extend automatically up to 2 extra rounds before pausing. The absolute ceiling is 120 iterations. If that is not enough, the per-session token budget (12 million tokens by default) is the real stop.
I got a “still processing” error when I sent a message
The builder processes one message at a time. If you see this error, a previous turn is still running. Wait for it to finish, or click Cancel to stop the current generation before sending a new message. Short confirmations like “yes” or “build it” sent while a build is already running are absorbed silently so they do not block you.
My mini app says it is still being set up — is it broken?
Almost certainly not. Creating a mini app sets up several objects (a table, its columns, views, rules, and possibly a board), and that work finishes in the background. If a step fails, the platform retries and heals forward rather than starting over — the process is designed so a retry completes the remainder instead of duplicating anything. Give it a minute and reload. If it is still stuck after that, check Your apps.
I see a health alert about an event handler being suspended — what does that mean?
A built custom app’s event handler was suspended after repeated failures when processing events. Events for that handler are being dropped until an administrator unsuspends it. Open the app in the builder or from Admin → Custom Apps to investigate and redeploy a fix.
I can’t find the app on my phone — where did it go?
The custom-app builder itself is desktop-only. On a phone you see a “Building happens on desktop” card and a list of your live built apps that have a mobile view. Not every built app has a mobile page — only apps with record types are servable on mobile. Mini apps work in a phone browser, and QR labels deep-link straight to a record’s mobile card.
I submitted a form through the public form link but nobody received it — why?
Public submissions land as records in the app, and a new record tells nobody by itself. For a mini app, ask an admin of the app to add a rule on its Rules page that notifies someone when a record is added — a public submission is an ordinary record, so the rule covers it. For a custom app, the app’s notification rules or SLA configuration may not cover the public-submission flow; ask your administrator to check the app’s notification and overdue settings in the builder.
How many versions of my app are kept?
The builder keeps up to 10 file snapshots per build session. Versions increment as you build and edit. When the cap is reached, the oldest snapshot is dropped. Restoring a version takes a safety snapshot of your current files first, so you do not lose the state you are rolling back from.
Licensing and limits
What are the mini-app limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Tables per mini app | 1–3, linked with reference fields; each table gets its own page |
| Fields per table | 1–20 |
| Field types available | Text, number, counter, choice, date, person, attachment, reference (a link to one record of another table or mini app), lookup (show a field through a reference) |
| First field | Must be text — it is the record’s display name |
| Field name length | 60 characters |
| App name length | 1–60 characters |
| Options on a choice field | 2–20 |
| Saved views per table | 6 |
| Rules per mini app | 10 |
| Rule actions — always available | Update a field, notify a person, create a task, scheduled digest of a saved view |
| Rule actions — capability grants (disclosed on the card) | Send email to an address stored on the record, request approval, public form |
| Rule recipients allowed | The record’s filer, the app’s creator, a person-field on the record, that person’s manager, a role, or a team |
| Rule triggers allowed | Record created, field changed, schedule |
| Pages (screens) per mini app | 5, each with up to 5 sections; metric cards per page: 4 |
| Rows shown on a live board | 3–10 |
| Description length when composing | 2,000 characters |
| Description length when editing | 1,000 characters |
| Automatic repair rounds on an invalid draft | Up to 2, and only while each round fixes more than the last |
| Open drafts kept per composer | 10 |
| Records per printable QR label sheet | 120 |
| Public form submissions | Honeypot-protected and rate-capped per form per hour |
| How many mini apps you can run | Bounded by your company’s table limit (each table counts) and at most 25 unpublished at once; live ones are not capped — where mini app packs apply, the pack follows them |
How many mini apps can we have?
Two limits apply. Tables: each mini app creates one to three tables, and every table counts toward your company’s table limit, which it shares with tables built by hand. The default is 5 tables; an administrator can raise it to 25 on Power Tables’ settings page without asking anyone (Power Tables has to be turned on in Admin → Apps → All Apps to open that page). Beyond that requires a MangoApps Console grant, which tops out at 500. If approving a mini app is refused with “This app needs N new tables, and your company’s table limit … has room for M”, that is the number to raise — then approve it again (an AI draft stays in Your open drafts; for a template, press its Use again). An app composed earlier whose setup stopped on “Table limit (5) reached” recovers the same way, with Retry setup now. Unpublished apps: up to 25 apps can wait unpublished at once; publish or remove one to create another. Live apps are not limited: where mini app packs apply, the pack follows how many are live and never stops a publish.
What are the custom-app build limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Platform APIs available to a built app | 81 |
| Declared capabilities an app can request | 16 |
| Image attachments per message | 5 |
| Image size | 10 MB |
| Builder chat messages | 60 per hour |
| Agent iterations per build turn | 40 |
| Absolute iteration ceiling per session | 120 |
| Wall-clock limit per build turn | 600 seconds |
| Per-session token budget | 12,000,000 tokens |
| Auto-continue rounds (medium and rich builds) | 2 |
| File snapshots retained | 10 |
| Quarantine threshold | 3 consecutive failures |
| Health alert deduplication window | 6 hours |
| API key scopes | builder, query, manage |
| AI-usage log retention | 30 days |
How is App Builder priced?
App Builder is included with every edition, with no per-employee charge and no per-app charge for custom apps. Building and trying apps is always free: an app counts only once it is published to users and working.
Where mini app packs are switched on (our shared cloud), live mini apps are billed as the smallest pack that covers them — 1 app $149 a month; up to 3, $387; up to 10, $1,100; up to 25, $2,250; up to 50, $4,000; up to 100, $7,000; beyond 100, $70 a month for each app. The pack follows your live mini apps on its own: each night it moves to the pack that covers them — up at once, down on the 1st — so there is nothing to buy, and it never stops you publishing. Mini apps already live when packs were switched on stay free, and apps your order form covers are billed on it. Each published mini app counts once, and that includes the app’s records and its boards. Three consequences worth knowing:
- An unpublished mini app is not counted, so build and test as many as you like (up to 25 unpublished at once).
- A mini app that fails to load is free while it is broken.
- Custom apps are not counted.
A mini app’s records belong to the app, not to Power Tables, so they never add to Power Tables’ usage. Builder AI tokens are not billed separately either — they stay on the shared platform AI-credits meter, and the Analytics tab shows the spend. The pack prices above are the list prices; for the rates on your own bill, talk to your MangoApps account team.
Can I build apps from external tools instead of the browser?
Not end to end — building and deploying a custom app happen in the browser. On a private cloud, where coded apps run, App Builder does issue scoped, revocable API keys for a REST API of the builder’s tools (it is not an MCP server). A script or coding assistant can list the tools, call them — read the SDK docs and examples, check code — and run read-only platform queries against your tenant; no key can write an app’s files or deploy it. Keys track last use and can be revoked from the builder at any time. The three available scopes are builder, query, and manage.
What quality checks does a build go through before I can deploy?
Every custom-app build passes three checks before deploy is offered. First, deterministic fit checks validate the schema, paths, and file structure. Second, an AST-level static security scan inspects the generated code for sandbox escapes, forbidden method calls, and tenant-isolation violations. Third, an AI QA reviewer reads the intent (your description plus the approved plan) against the generated files and judges whether each scenario is correctly implemented.
Mini apps do not go through these, because there is no code to scan. Their equivalent safeguard is the palette itself: the plan is validated against a fixed set of allowed field types, operators, actions, and recipients before you see it, and validated again on the server when you approve it.
What can the Ask AI agents do — and what can’t they?
Two agents split this territory, and Ask AI routes to the right one by what you ask.
The App Builder agent covers built custom apps. Four read tools: list the custom apps this business has built, report one app’s health, show a built app’s deploy/enable/disable audit trail, and list recent build sessions. Two write tools — enable an app and disable an app — both confirm first, only work on apps this business actually built, and are global-admin only. It cannot deploy, roll back, or delete an app, and it does not cover mini apps.
The Mini Apps agent answers questions about your mini apps, for anyone who can open them: list the mini apps you can open, describe one’s lists, fields, views and pages, look up and search its records, count them (per list and per saved view), submit a quick-update form (with confirmation), change how a mini app built here is made — its fields, choices, required fields, saved views, rules (add one, or rename, pause, resume or delete one, or change when one runs, what it checks or what it does), pages and its own name — when you ask it to (it drafts the change the way Edit with AI does and confirms first, showing what will change), and remove a mini app built here when you ask it to (it confirms first, saying how many records go and when, and refuses an app that isn’t yours to remove or is live). Only the person who built an app, or an App Builder admin, can change or remove it. It enforces each app’s own audience and each list’s access on every question — ask about a list you cannot see and it tells you so, rather than guessing — and an app switched off in its settings is named as switched off.
Settings
What do the App Builder settings control?
Settings is for global administrators only. Besides Enable AI agents (the switch for both App Builder agents in Ask AI) and Who can create mini apps, it carries three toggles:
- Auto-continue long builds (default: on) — when a medium or rich custom-app build hits its iteration limit, the builder extends automatically (up to 2 rounds) instead of pausing for a click.
- Alert on built-app health problems (default: on) — sends a notification when a built app is quarantined, fails to load, has an event handler suspended, or has an auto-update rolled back. Alerts are deduped to at most one per app per event per 6 hours.
- Alert when a marketplace-installed app has an update (default: on) — sends a notification when a newer published version of an app your business installed from the marketplace is available. Apps built here raise no update alert — a built app changes when you redeploy it.
An optional Additional notification recipients field lets you widen alerts to a group from Admin › Groups. Without it, alerts go to the app’s builder and deployer first, then fall back to App Builder’s app-admins.
The three toggles and the group concern custom-app builds. None of them affects mini apps, which have no build job, no iteration limit, and no deploy step.
Where are a mini app’s own settings?
On the mini app itself, and only for an admin of the app. For an app built here, open Edit app from the app’s Manage menu and choose Settings; it has four pages:
- General: the app’s name, icon and description, what it calls one record and several, and the example records it came with.
- Access & publishing: who can open the app and the switch that turns it on or off, who can read and add each list’s records, what was approved for the app (email outside OneMango, approval requests, a public form, a kiosk), and the requests waiting on an admin. Only a company or Power Tables administrator can clear a list’s patient-data mark; an admin of the app who isn’t one presses Ask to Clear the Mark beside it, and the Power Tables admins (or, where there are none, the company’s administrators) are asked to approve it.
- Ways in & out: the public form and kiosk links, the app’s cards on the company dashboard, the header and footer of printed records, and import, export and QR labels.
- Health: who is using the app, who turned it on or off or changed its links, the rules it runs (with Pause and Resume), and everything the app manages. Changes to the app’s design are on the History tab.
The app’s other admin pages are under Edit app too: Data lists its fields and request form, with Fields (each field’s type, and deleted fields to restore), Views and Deleted records beside it; Import & export, Sharing, Header & footer and Record history open from their Settings pages; the cards a board shows are set on Board cards, linked from Pages. An app from MangoApps has no Edit app: its settings are on one page, App settings, in its sidebar. Turning the app off closes it for everyone; the data is untouched and the settings stay reachable so you can turn it back on.
More help
- App Builder Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers App Builder questions from these articles.