Build your first team tool

Who

Anyone building a tool for their team

Time

About 10 minutes for a first draft

Choose one small task you know well, such as logging a customer visit. You’ll describe what should happen, try the result and share it when it is ready. Sign in first if you haven’t opened Applane yet.

1. Pick a task and a Sheet

Open app.applane.dev, choose New app and select Internal for a tool your colleagues will use. Start with a Sheet you can access, with clear column headings.

Tell Applane which Sheet to use. It can read the files you point it at using your work account’s permissions.

2. Explain what you need

Write as you would to a colleague. Include who will use the tool, what they need to do and where the result should go. For example:

Make a form to log a customer visit. Let me choose a customer from the Accounts tab, enter a date and add notes. Save each visit to the Visits tab.

Applane builds a draft and shows a preview. Ask for changes in the same conversation: “Default the date to today” or “Sort customers by name.”

3. Try the preview

Preview uses sample data. Check the labels, buttons and steps; it does not prove that the app can read or save your real records.

Try the task from beginning to end. Ask for any changes before moving on.

4. Test with real data

Review the Deploy this version? card and click Deploy. This saves a test version in your Google environment. Open Live to check it with your work account.

The Live version uses real data. If the tool saves records, use a clearly labelled test entry and check the result in your Sheet. Google may ask you to approve the app’s permissions.

5. Publish and share

When you are happy with the test, click Publish and send the published app link to a colleague. For an internal app, they use their work account and need access to the underlying data.

Sharing a tool explains who can use it and who can help you edit it.

Make a change later

Open the tool from your Applane home screen and describe the change. Preview, deploy and test it, then publish the update. Your team keeps using the published version until you publish again.

Your app is saved in your company’s Drive. Chat history and drafts stay in this browser; clearing its site data removes them. Your prompts go directly to Google for the AI response, without passing through Applane’s backend.