Data for Apps

Ask NocoAI

Copy a prompt, paste it into NocoAI in any base, and replace the words in [brackets] with your own.

Build an app on our [Postgres] [orders] and [customers] tables for [the support team]
Build an app that reads [open deals] from [our CRM API] and lets [sales] update them
Add a [Comments] table that the app uses to track [notes on each deal]

A NocoDB app can work with your data wherever it lives: your databases, any API and SaaS apps. The app connects to your systems and reads and writes them live. You do not sync or import the data into NocoDB first. When the app needs data of its own, it gets a business-grade database: NocoDB tables with revision history, comments, roles and permissions.

Connect your data where it lives

Describe the app and where its data lives, for example "an order desk on our Postgres orders table". NocoAI adds the connection that the app needs while it builds. You connect it before or after the build, and you approve what the app can use. The app then reads and writes that system directly, each time an action runs.

To connect	How the app reaches it
Your databases	PostgreSQL, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server, queried directly, to read and write.
Any API, internal or public	An HTTP API connection, with an API key, a bearer token or basic auth. Use it for any system that has an API, including other databases.
SaaS apps	Ready-made integrations such as GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira Cloud, Linear, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Chatwoot, Zoho, BambooHR, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. Integrations that you connected for workflows, such as Slack, HubSpot, Gmail and Twilio, also work.
A cache or key-value store	A Redis connection.

The data stays in your systems. The app does not copy it, so what people see in the app is always current. Credentials stay in the connection and never in the pages of the app.

Build on a business-grade database

When the app needs data of its own, it keeps it in NocoDB tables. A NocoDB table is not a bare database table, and the NocoDB project behind the app is a full admin tool for your team. Every app comes with its own back office, the way a CRM gives its admins a console next to what users see.

In the back office	What your team gets
Links, lookups and rollups	Real relations between tables, with values pulled and totaled across them.
Formulas	Computed fields, without code.
Views	Grid, kanban, gallery, calendar, timeline and form views of the same data.
Revision history	Every change to a record is kept: who changed what, and when.
Comments	People discuss each record, mention teammates and resolve threads.
Roles and permissions	Project roles, plus table and field permissions.
Record-level security	Rules that decide which records each person or team can see.
Webhooks and workflows	Automations that run when records change.
Dashboards	Charts and metrics on the same data.
Audit log	A workspace record of who did what.

The app and your team share one source of truth. The app serves its users, and your team runs the data behind it in NocoDB, within the same roles and rules.

Mix live connections and project data

An app can use connections and project data at the same time. For example, an app can read orders from your database through a connection and keep its own notes, with their history and comments, in a NocoDB table. Project data can come from:

Project data	What it is	How to add it
NocoDB tables	Tables that you, your team or NocoAI create in the project.	Create tables in the project, or ask NocoAI. A new project built as an App creates the tables and the app from one description.
A connected database	An external PostgreSQL or MySQL database that you connect to the project as a data source, so that it also shows as tables in NocoDB. Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are add-ons for Enterprise customers.	Connect a data source to the project.
Synced tools	Data that syncs into the project from tools such as HubSpot, GitHub, GitLab, Linear, Zendesk and your calendar or HR system.	Set up App Sync in the project.

Let NocoAI design the data

When the app needs data that does not exist yet, NocoAI adds the tables and fields in the project as part of the build. You describe the app, and NocoAI decides the data model. You can see and edit every table that it creates, like any other table in the project.

To start from nothing, select App when you create a project. NocoDB designs the data model, creates the tables, fields and views, and assembles the app from one description. See Create an app.

Good to know

When the project uses your own database, the app reads and writes that database. The app has no record limit.
Fields that App Sync creates are read-only, because the sync goes one way, into NocoDB. You can add your own fields to a synced table, and the app can use them.
Each project has at most one AI app.
The app can see only the data that its actions use, and each team can run only the actions that it is granted. See Secure vibe coding.

Availability

Apps on the data of a project are available on every plan that includes Apps.
Resolving comments, record-level security and some permission types need a paid plan. See Free vs paid editions.
Actions that read and write external data through SQL, HTTP or Redis connections are available on the Plus plan and above.
Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle data sources are add-ons for Enterprise customers.