Retool's new app builder

A new AI-powered app builder is now available to cloud instances! :rocket: Build production-ready React apps using natural language in the app builder or through your favorite coding agent via MCP. Whatever or however you build, everything inherits the security standards your organization has already approved and implemented.

The updated app builder is available in cloud instances. It will be available in upcoming stable and edge releases.

The app builder includes:

Apps run on React 19 and a curated set of supporting libraries.

Apps built using Retool's drag-and-drop IDE are now called classic apps. Apps refer to apps created in the new app builder.

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For the new app builder how do you connect a resource? the @ tag does not surface the resource I am looking for

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Hey @Antony_Kariu! Welcome to the community. :slightly_smiling_face:

What kind of resource are you trying to tag? Some legacy resource types such as OpenAPI aren't supported in the new app builder.

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clickhouse

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Ah got it - this is one of the resource types that isn't yet supported in the new builder. We are definitely planning on it, though! I've logged your interest in the relevant tracking ticket and will give you an update as soon as I can. :+1:

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Thank you Darren

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Hey Darren, any update on the OpenAPI resource? It would be helpful to avoid having to build separate workflows (read: custom APIs) to handle simple requests/queries in the app.

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Hey @pyrrho - no specific timeline, but the proposed solution that I've seen is to implement an automatic conversion of legacy OpenAPI resources to the new spec-based REST API resource. That would make them usable by the new app-building agent.

I've added your context to the internal ticket and will reach out to the team. As soon as I have any updates, I'll share them here!

This is a valid workaround! Part of the issue with it is that I didn’t want to rebuild a workflow to use a new connector/resource – however, now that workflows are unlocked directly in the builder this becomes almost a non-issue. It’d still be nice to use the full suite of configured resources, though!

Yes - the native workflow support makes this significantly less painful! I'll keep you updated, though. :+1: