Build a collaborative app

Ask Matrix to build an app your organization can use together, or to make an existing personal app collaborative. The collaborative app builder skill prepares the app, checks the available behavior, and guides organization sharing. It needs a Matrix release containing matrix-collaborative-app-builder and the matching collaborative app runtime.

Tell Matrix who the app is for

For a new app:

Build a collaborative task tracker for my organization. Everyone should see and update the same tasks. Check it before guiding me through sharing.

For an existing app:

Make my existing tracker collaborative. Preserve its design and saved records, check readiness, then help me share it with my organization.

If collaboration seems useful and you have not specified a preference, Matrix asks whether you will use the app personally or with your organization. An explicit personal-only request skips this question.

Prepare and check the app

Matrix builds the app and checks the owner's save-and-reopen behavior. For an existing app, it inspects the current storage and preserves the app's identity, design, and records. Browser-only data may need a separate export and reviewed import. Keep the source backup until you have verified the imported data; converting the app does not authorize deleting the original browser data.

Completion reports distinguish three results:

• Build passed: the application compiled and its app preflight passed.
• Matrix readiness passed: the current Matrix runtime accepted that exact build's collaboration contract.
• Two-account behavior verified: two authenticated organization members actually used the app against the same records.

Any unavailable check remains pending. A successful build alone cannot establish that another person can use the app. Readiness may need to be checked again after an app change.

Choose an organization and share

After preparation, Matrix asks which organization you want to share with, unless you already chose one. Open Share app, select that organization, review the disclosure, and confirm. Your colleagues find the app in Shared with me.

Before confirming, understand what sharing means:

• Every current member of the selected organization, including its guests, can use the full app and see its existing app records.
• The creator retains ownership. The app and its records stay on the creator's Matrix computer; colleagues use the same records rather than installing copies.
• New members gain access through organization membership. Departed members lose it.
• Stop sharing ends colleague access and keeps the owner's records.
• Sharing an app does not grant the creator's connected accounts, credentials, or AI spending authority.

This version shares with one organization. It has no individual app invitations, Viewer/Editor choices, or record filters. Private collaboration, publishing a website, and Gallery installation serve different audiences and have different data behavior.

Verify together

Have a second member open the app and confirm that existing records are visible. Create, edit, and delete a test record from both accounts, then reload and confirm that both see the saved result. Also check a conflicting edit and recovery after the owner's computer becomes unavailable.

If a save is uncertain, retain your input. Use the app's Retry original save action when offered, or Matrix's Retry control in the shared app window. Review the saved records before making another change; repeated fresh submissions can create different operations. Conflicts require deliberate review rather than silently overwriting another person's edit.

Use Web Canvas, Web Desktop, Electron Desktop, or web mobile on supported releases. Native Mobile does not yet run V1 shared custom apps; use the web experience.

If the owner computer goes offline, the app should show an unavailable state and retain unfinished input. Saved records return when the host recovers. Report the surface and check that failed when asking Matrix to troubleshoot.