Custom Apps - AI Creation Platform

Custom Apps is the core of the AI Creation Platform. The platform is built on a modular architecture where pre-built global apps handle everything that is too complex or too critical for AI to write reliably -- things like email delivery, SMS broadcasting, AI model integrations, payment processing, database management, and hosted websites. These global apps are production-tested, fully featured, and available to every account.

Custom apps fill in the gaps. They let you build exactly the functionality that is missing for your specific use case, on top of the foundation that the global apps already provide. Your custom app can call any global app command as a built-in function, store its own data, manage its own admin pages, and expose its own API endpoints, webhooks, and scheduled tasks -- all without managing servers, databases, or infrastructure.

The best approach to building with this platform:
1. Start with the global apps. Look at what is already available -- email, SMS, AI chatbots, AI calls, web hosting, and more. Even if you only need part of an app's functionality, it is already built and you only pay for what you use.
2. Connect apps together with Chain Commands. The visual logic editor lets you create automation sequences that call any combination of global and custom app commands in order, with conditional logic and variable passing between steps.
3. Build custom apps for what is missing. Whatever specific functionality, data storage, or unique logic your project still needs -- that is what custom apps are for.

Keep each custom app small and focused.
The most effective custom apps do one thing well. Even if a task involves a few API commands, a webhook, and a scheduled job, keep it all centered on one clear purpose. This makes the AI much better at writing solid code and making good design decisions. If you need multiple pieces of functionality, create multiple small apps and connect them with Chain Commands. You can create as many custom apps as you want.

Building a custom app is a conversation. You open your app in the admin panel and chat with the AI assistant, describing what you want your app to do. The AI asks questions to understand your requirements, then guides you through a structured 3-step process: Ideas, Config, and Code. Each step must complete before the next one begins, and you can go back and refine any step at any time.

The conversation is persistent -- you can close the browser and come back later, and the AI remembers everything you have discussed. As you describe features, the AI checks them against the global apps already on the platform and will tell you when an existing app already handles what you are asking for, so your custom app only contains what is truly new.

The first step collects your requirements into a complete App Summary -- a plain-text outline of everything the custom app must do. Describe what data needs to be stored, what actions the app should perform, what triggers should start those actions, and any third-party services it needs to connect to. The AI asks follow-up questions to fill in gaps and produces a written summary of the full specification.

What to include in your description:
- What information the app needs to store and manage
- What actions users or systems should be able to trigger via API
- Whether anything needs to run automatically on a schedule
- Whether external services need to send data to your app via webhook
- How the app connects to other apps on the platform (email, SMS, AI, etc.)

You can run the Ideas step as many times as needed. Each time, the AI updates the App Summary without removing anything you have already confirmed. Review the summary carefully before moving on -- it is the foundation for everything that follows.

Once you confirm the App Summary, the AI designs the complete technical structure of your app. This is called the App Design Config -- a detailed description of every PHP function the app needs, organized by type: API commands, background jobs, webhooks, scheduled tasks, and database fields. No code is written at this stage. The AI describes what each function does, what data it takes in, what it returns, and how it interacts with the rest of the platform.

What the design covers:
API Commands -- secure endpoints that users or systems call through the API. Each command has a name, input fields, output fields, and a description of its behavior.
Background Jobs -- the same as API commands but run as background processes for bulk or long-running operations.
Webhooks -- open endpoints where third-party services can send data directly to your app via URL.
Scheduled Tasks -- functions that run automatically at set times via the platform's cron system.
Database Fields -- the data structure your app stores and manages, with field names and default values.

Once you confirm the App Design Config, the AI writes all the PHP code for your app. Every function defined in the design is created with the exact behavior described. The code uses the platform's built-in functions for all database operations, file storage, and connections to global apps -- your custom code never touches raw database credentials, API keys, or infrastructure directly.

Built-in functions available to your custom app code:
CustomDatabaseQuery -- reads a row from your app's database storage.
CustomDatabaseUpdate -- writes or updates a field in your app's database storage. Creates the row automatically if it does not exist.
AppBridge -- calls any command from any global app on the platform, exactly as if it were called through the API. All authentication, billing, and error handling is built in.
WriteCustomAppFile -- stores files that need to be web-accessible, like images or generated content.

The generated code is validated for safety before it can run. The platform checks for prohibited operations like direct database access, hardcoded credentials, or unsafe system calls. If validation fails, the code is saved but not executed, and you can review and fix it in the admin panel.

Custom apps can have their own admin area pages for managing data. Each page is defined by a slug configuration that controls what fields are shown, how records are listed, and what actions are available (create, edit, delete, search). The AI can create and edit these pages at any point during the conversation -- just ask it to set up an admin page for a specific type of data.

What admin pages provide:
- A list view showing all records with sortable columns and optional filters
- An edit view with form fields for each record's data
- Create, update, and delete capabilities controlled by permission flags
- Optional bulk editing and data export
- Connection to your app's database fields so data flows between the admin interface and your API commands

The Custom Apps list page shows all the custom apps on your account. From here you can create new apps, manage existing ones, and open any app to start or continue the AI-guided build conversation. Each app has a name, optional description, and notes field for your own reference.

App Command (API Call)
POST your request to https://api.aiappsapi.com with your API key and account ID in the POST body. The fields described in each section below go inside the jsonData POST field as a JSON-encoded string. Use this method when your server is making the call and you have your API credentials available.

Mode / Webhook (Direct URL)
POST directly to the endpoint URL shown in each section. The fields go in the POST body as standard form fields (the same fields you would include in an HTML form POST). Use this method for provider webhooks, website forms, or any third-party system that sends form data. No API key is required -- the account ID is part of the URL.

To call a custom app command through the API, set the app to custom and include the appID field to identify which custom app to run. The command name and the fields in jsonData depend on what your specific custom app was designed to do -- they are defined during the Config step when the AI designs the app's API commands.

Webhooks:
If your custom app includes webhook endpoints (defined as modes in the design), external services can POST data directly to your app's URL. The URL follows the standard mode pattern with your account ID and the mode name. The app ID is included in the posted data so the platform knows which custom app to route to.

Background Jobs:
Commands defined as background jobs in the design run as server-side processes that can handle bulk or long-running operations. They are triggered through the same API call pattern as regular commands, but the platform queues them to run in the background instead of returning an immediate response.

Scheduled Tasks:
Functions defined with a schedule in the design run automatically at the specified time via the platform's cron system. Scheduled tasks do not receive any input data -- they are designed to look up whatever they need from the database and perform their work independently.