The platform
This lesson walks through the main areas of the product so you know where everything lives before you start building.
Start in Studio
Every project opens in Studio — the in-dashboard AI app builder (/projects/{id} redirects to /studio). It's the primary build surface: a chat builder, a code workspace, a live preview, a plan editor, and a publish panel with versions and rollback. If you're not using an IDE, this is where you'll spend most of your time.
The project sidebar
Once you're in a project, the left sidebar is grouped like this:
- Overview — the Dashboard: app preview, usage at a glance, API keys, and deploy.
- Build — API (your endpoints and the visual workflow editor — the sidebar label is "API", not "Endpoints"), Database, Storage, Authentication, and Credentials (typed third-party API keys, encrypted per project).
- Ship — Frontend, which expands into Overview, Deployments (history + 1-click rollback), Variables, and Domains.
- Observe — Logs (the console stream), Errors, and Usage (build minutes, database storage, object storage).
- Configure — Settings (general settings; API Keys live under Settings → API Keys).
Where config lives
Three different places hold configuration, and they're easy to confuse: Frontend (Build) variables are public values baked into your client bundle; Backend Secrets (Ship → Frontend → Variables) are encrypted runtime secrets referenced as ctx.secrets.X; and Credentials (Build → Credentials) are typed third-party API keys used by integration nodes. Never put secrets in the public Frontend variables tab.
No standalone AI Agents page
AI agents in HeroMate are just endpoints flagged as tools (is_tool=true) plus the agent workflow node — you configure them inside the API workspace, not on a separate page. The real observability surfaces are Logs, Errors, and Usage (there's a legacy Metrics dashboard, but it isn't linked from the sidebar).
Beyond a single project
Some surfaces live at the organization level, not inside one project:
- AI Models (
/{org}/ai-models) — choose which models your projects can use with HeroMate Managed AI (plan-gated). - Conectar IA (
/{org}/mcp/tokens) — create the MCP tokens that connect your AI client to HeroMate. - Automations (
/{org}/automations) — schedules and inbound webhooks across all your projects.
What you'll learn
- How data, APIs, and auth relate to each other in a project
- Where to configure things in the dashboard vs via MCP
- A mental model for building your first app end-to-end
Next
Start Building your first app with Authentication.