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MantleMantle docs

App data

Give an app its own storage, connect it to live data, and ask the assistant about what it holds.

An app reaches data in only two ways: its own database, and tools you grant it. It cannot read your notes, tables or mail on its own.

Pick the simplest kind

The app needs Use
Nothing stored (a calculator, a converter) Pure code. Nothing to set up.
To remember entries, or fixed reference data Its own database.
Your brain’s data, or an outside service A tool.

Say which one you want when you ask Appsmith, for example “keep the entries in the app’s own database”.

The app’s own database

Each app gets one private database. No other app can open it.

  • Appsmith creates the tables and can pre-load reference data, such as a price list from a spreadsheet you name.
  • Users of a shared app at Team or Client level can write to it, so one app can be a shared job log.
  • It is included in backups. History > Take snapshot keeps a copy you can restore.

Live data through tools

  1. Ask for it by name: “Show today’s weather from OpenWeather.”
  2. Appsmith asks the Toolsmith agent to build and test a tool for that service.
  3. If the service needs an API key you have not stored, Appsmith stops and says which key to add. Add it under Settings > API keys, then ask it to carry on. See Models and API keys.
  4. The tool is added to the app’s list of allowed tools. The app calls it through Jackdaw. Your key never reaches the app.

An app at Team level or lower may use an outside tool only after you switch on External access for that tool on Settings > Tools. A public link gets no tools at all.

For more on building tools, see Toolsmith.

Ask the assistant about app data

The assistant can read every app’s database, read-only:

  • “How many open items are in my tracker app?”
  • “What’s in the inventory table of the stock app?”

Clear table and column names help it answer.

Mirror app data into a Table

To see an app’s table in Tables, ask the assistant: “Export the jobs table of the job log app to a Table.” The Table is a read-only copy. It updates after each write in the app. The app stays the master, so edit the data in the app.

If it fails

  • The app shows no data: usually an API key is missing, or the tool is not on the app’s allowed list. Ask the assistant to check and fix it with the app open.
  • It works for you but not for a member: the outside tool needs External access.

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