Framework vs. app code
The framework provides a large set of functionality via@synthetiq/app-framework. App code imports from the framework — it does not reimplement these features.
Provided by the framework
| Component | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Backend | tRPC procedures with type-safe input validation, declarative access control, and middleware |
| Frontend | React SPA with client-side routing and pre-built admin, settings, and docs pages |
| App database | Postgres database with Prisma ORM, and automatic row-level security |
| Authentication | OAuth 2.0 with pluggable identity providers — zero app code |
| Access control | Scope-based RBAC enforced at build time and runtime |
| AI agent | Built-in chat with streaming, tool calling, and rich rendering |
| Services | Scope-gated integration with external services via platform-managed credentials |
| Workflows | Background job execution with scheduling, pagination, and retry |
| Auto-generated APIs | HTTP endpoints, MCP server, and OAuth provider from tRPC procedures |
| Monitoring | Structured logging, metrics collection, and dashboards |
App implements
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Pages & components | The app-specific pages, styles, and components |
| Backend routes | The API routes for the app’s business logic |
| Workflows | JSON configuration for any workflows the app will trigger |
| DB tables | The database tables for powering the app’s business logic |
| AI agent configuration | The system prompt, access control, and LLM provider for the in-app AI agent |
| App metadata configuration | App name, description, and settings |
| Access control | Define scopes and access control policies |
Next steps
- Creating an app — scaffold an app and build a task tracker step by step
- Auto-generated docs — auto-generated documentation pages
- Headless API — HTTP API, MCP server, and OAuth provider
- Administration UI — managing users, roles, organizations, identity providers, and services
- App lifecycle — versioning, sharing, and deploying
- Upgrading — upgrading to new framework versions
- Full reference — procedures, routing, database, access control, and configuration