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Your first app in ten minutes

In about ten minutes you will have a published data app that answers one question about one of your data models. No code is written: the agent interviews you, shows you real numbers, composes the app from a description, and you publish it.

Before you start​

  • A Bicycle account with access to a workspace that has at least one data model.
  • Claude Desktop or Claude Code connected to Studio. If not yet: Connect a coding agent (two minutes).
  • One question you actually want answered, for example "are failed orders getting worse, and where?"

Step 1. Say what you want to decide​

Type something like:

I want an app that shows whether failed orders are getting worse this month, and which reasons and regions drive it. I will check it every morning.

The agent will ask a few questions before it builds anything: what "failed order" means to you, which time window matters, who else will look at it. Answer in your own words. See What the agent will ask you for why.

Step 2. Check the numbers​

The agent finds the matching data model and reports what it can say: the metrics, the ways to split them, and the dates the data covers. Then it runs a query and shows you a few real numbers:

Last week's failed orders come to 412, against 380 the week before. Does 412 match what you see in your dashboard?

Compare them with something you already know. If they do not match, say so; the agent will look for the reason (a different definition, a different time zone, a date range past the end of the data) before going further. Do not let it build on numbers you have not recognised.

Step 3. Choose the questions the app answers​

The agent proposes three to five questions in plain sentences, each backed by a preview of real rows:

  • Is the failed-order rate on track, improving or slipping?
  • How has it moved since the start of the month, by reason?
  • Which regions carry the most failed orders?

Swap, drop or add one. Say what you usually narrow by (region, channel); those become filters.

Step 4. Compose a draft​

The agent validates the description and composes it into a draft version. It gives you the app's link. Open it: the layout renders at once and each card fills in as its query returns. Nothing is live yet; a draft is visible only to you and the agent.

Ask for changes in the same conversation ("add a comparison with the previous period", "call it 'declined payments', not 'failed orders'"). Each change is a new draft version.

Step 5. Publish (you do this)​

When it looks right, say "publish it". Publishing makes the version live for everyone in your workspace who can see the app, so the agent asks for an explicit yes and then calls Studio's publish tool as you. If your client asks you to approve the tool call, check the app and version named in it.

Open the published link once more and check the numbers against what you validated in step 2.

Step 6. Share it, or send it on a schedule​

  • Share: the agent can grant read access to a person or a group; say who.
  • Schedule: "email me a picture of this app every Monday at 9 in my time zone". The agent sets up a schedule and offers a test run that produces the picture without sending an email. Details: Publish, share and schedules.

What you have now​

  • A published data app bound to one model, composed from a description (a spec), so a later change is a change to the description, never to code.
  • A record of who published which version, on the app's page in Studio.

When ten minutes is not enough​

Some apps need a button that runs something: "score this order", "triage this failure", "run the weekly digest now". Those are apps that call functions or workflows, and today they are hand-built from the public template rather than composed. The agent knows when to switch; you will notice because it asks you to confirm a function's first publish. Start with Data apps: compose or hand-build and the KPI app example.

Copy for your agent
Build me a Bicycle data app. Before building, ask me what I will decide with it, who will use it, and how I define the numbers. Find the data model, show me a few real numbers and wait for me to confirm they match what I know. Compose the app from a description (no code) and give me the draft link. Do not publish, share or schedule anything until I say so; when a step needs me, give me the link and wait. When it is published, tell me how to test it and list everything you created.