# Quickstart

Getting a custom app into the hands of your team or clients is exciting. With Noloco, you can build and share your app in minutes. The quickstart below covers the three things you need to do — create the app, customize it, and go live — plus an optional power-up at the end for teams who use an AI assistant.

## Step 1: Create an app

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Account required.** You'll need a Noloco account before creating an app. Sign up at [portals.noloco.io/register](https://portals.noloco.io/register) using a business email address. Free email providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) are not accepted.
{% endhint %}

There are four ways to create an app. Pick the one that matches how you'd like to start.

### Method 1: Start with Nola (Recommended)

**Best for:** anyone who'd rather describe what they want than fill in a wizard.

Nola is the conversational AI assistant in the Noloco studio. Tell her about your business and what you need to track, and she'll scaffold the whole app — tables, relationships, layouts, sample data, and views — explaining each step as she works. You can keep iterating in the same conversation until the app fits.

{% content-ref url="/pages/mQC4PzZpNUyqd8hzWq2C" %}
[Start with Nola](/quickstart/start-with-nola.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% hint style="success" %}
**New to Noloco?** Starting with Nola is the easiest way to learn the platform while building exactly what you need.
{% endhint %}

### Method 2: Start with AI

**Best for:** people who'd rather pick from menus than chat.

A guided onboarding wizard asks about your industry, team, and the problems you want to solve, then generates a tailored app for you. It's a structured alternative to Nola — less open-ended, but quick if you know roughly what you need.

{% content-ref url="/pages/JPgFmkfrEt16fyhMKQwE" %}
[Start with AI](/quickstart/start-with-ai.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Method 3: Start with your data

**Best for:** teams with existing data in an external source.

If you already have data in [Airtable](/data/airtable.md), [Google Sheets](/data/google-sheets.md), [SmartSuite](/data/smartsuite.md), [Xano](/data/xano.md), [PostgreSQL](/data/postgresql.md), or [MySQL](/data/mysql.md), connect the source and Noloco will import the schema and data, then generate a starting layout around it.

{% content-ref url="/pages/nuEgDTgPnnQDIvWb38WV" %}
[Start with your data](/quickstart/start-with-your-data.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Method 4: Start with a template

**Best for:** common use cases that already have a template.

Browse our pre-built templates for CRMs, project management, client portals, and more. Copy the one that's closest to your use case and customize from there.

{% content-ref url="/pages/cLT1II1YLJN9Ktd7T1YS" %}
[Start with a template](/quickstart/start-with-a-template.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## Step 2: Customize and personalize

Once you have your initial app (whether built by Nola, generated from the wizard, imported from data, or copied from a template), make it your own.

### Personalize your app

1. [Change your app's theme](/settings/theme-and-design.md) to match your brand
2. [Upload your own app logo](/settings/general-settings/custom-logos.md)
3. Update the app's title, description, and email settings

### Add functionality

The power of Noloco is customizing your app to match your exact workflows:

1. [Add views](/pages/views.md) to display your data
2. [Update the record page](/record-pages/overview.md)
3. [Customize forms](/forms/forms.md) for data entry
4. Automate with [action buttons](/actions/action-buttons.md) and [workflows](/workflows/workflows.md)
5. Set up [user roles and permissions](/users-and-permissions/user-roles-and-permissions.md)

{% hint style="info" %}
**Need help customizing?** You can always ask [Nola](/nola.md) to add features, build workflows, or modify your app's structure.
{% endhint %}

## Step 3: Go live and invite users

After you've customized your app, you're ready to share it with your team or clients:

1. [**Turn on live mode**](/settings/general-settings/live-mode.md) — make your app accessible to users.
2. [**Invite users**](/users-and-permissions/user-management.md) — add users via the User table, or sync them from your data source with a [User List](/settings/user-lists.md).
3. **Share your app's URL** — send the link to your team or clients. They'll receive an email to confirm their login.

{% hint style="success" %}
**Congratulations!** Your app is now live. You can continue to make changes and improvements at any time — updates are reflected immediately.
{% endhint %}

## Build with your own AI agent

Once your app is up and running, you can take it further by connecting an AI assistant like Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini directly to Noloco. Your assistant gets access to your live app data (via the Noloco MCP server) and these guides (via our GitBook MCP server), so it can answer questions, advise on schema and workflow design, and run data tasks for you in natural language.

Many builders also use this connection *before* their app is fully built — letting their AI plan the structure first, then bringing those decisions into Nola or the studio.

{% content-ref url="/pages/Vnk1O3RGkSVgtEqnnerb" %}
[Connect your own AI agent](/quickstart/connect-an-ai-agent.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


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