> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.reintersect.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Agent builder

> Ask a coding agent in Reintersect to build an app: it writes the code in its sandbox, shows you a preview, and asks an admin to publish.

> Reintersect apps are in developer preview. Names and limits can still change before general
> release.

Members can ask a coding agent in Reintersect to build an app for them, for example "build me a block
that tracks our on-call handovers" or "turn links to our status page into live cards". The agent
writes an ordinary Reintersect app with the same SDK, templates and checks described in these docs,
and you review it before anyone else sees it.

The agent builder runs in agent chats where the agent has a coding sandbox: Reintersect's own agent
with coding turned on, or a coding agent (Claude Code or Codex) on your connected account in
workspaces where coding agents are enabled.

## What you can ask for

The agent builds Reintersect-hosted apps from the `hosted` template and can use anything the SDK
supports:

* blocks with actions, forms, votes and audience-limited parts, often starting from a
  [recipe](/recipes/overview),
* references for your links, with search,
* slash commands, message actions and event handlers,
* routes that receive webhooks from your other tools,
* calls to outside APIs listed in `egress`, with secrets kept in the app's environment.

It can't change how Reintersect itself works, add UI outside the [component catalog](/components/overview),
or hold credentials in code. When a secret is needed, it asks you to set it in the app's
**Environment** page; it never asks you to paste one into the chat.

## How a build goes

<Steps>
  <Step title="The agent scaffolds and writes the app">
    In its sandbox, it runs `create-reintersect` with the hosted template, reads the project's
    `AGENTS.md` and SDK skill, and writes the code.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It checks and deploys a preview">
    It runs the tests, `reintersect check` and `reintersect deploy --preview`. The preview goes to your
    personal development app and runs only on your development install.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It tests the preview">
    The agent runs the preview's slash commands and message actions itself and reads what comes
    back, including any block, then fixes what's wrong and deploys again. A message action runs on a
    test message that isn't posted anywhere, and the answers stay private to you. If a run might
    change something in one of your connected tools or outside services, the agent asks for your
    approval first.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It shows you the preview">
    The agent shows a preview card with a link to the [playground](/hosting/previews#the-playground),
    where you try the blocks in interactive, read-only and agent text modes, paste links, and click
    through actions. Ask for changes in the chat; each round deploys a new preview.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It proposes publishing">
    When you're happy, ask the agent to publish. It creates a publish request and shows a card with
    what the app will be able to access. Workspace owners and admins get a notification.
  </Step>

  <Step title="An admin publishes">
    The admin reviews the request: what the app can do, what changed since the version the workspace
    runs, the playground link and any settings to fill in. **Publish** makes the preview the
    production version and installs it for the workspace. **Decline** closes the request. If you are
    an admin yourself, you make that decision on the same page.
  </Step>
</Steps>

A newer publish request replaces an older pending one for the same app. Publishing is refused while
a required production environment variable has no value; the review page links to the app's
Environment page.

## What the agent can and can't do

The sandbox never holds a real Reintersect credential. For each turn, Reintersect issues a short-lived
builder credential that is tied to you and the conversation and works only on Reintersect's app
endpoints. With it, the agent can:

* create and sync your development app, upload previews and set preview environment values,
* run `reintersect check` with the full validator,
* reach only apps you own.

It can't deploy production, set production environment values, publish, or read your app's signing
secret. Publishing takes an admin's approval.

## After publishing

The app is an ordinary app in **Settings → Developer → Apps**, owned by you. Ask the agent for changes
in a conversation, or move the code into your own repository and deploy new versions like any other
app.
Versions that ask for more access go through [admin review](/concepts/install-and-consent#publishing-new-versions)
as usual.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.