BI tools help you go from data to insights, what is happening in your business. Then you have to decide what actions you need to take, and to take those actions you go through multiple other tools. Your team today spends most of its time looking at data in one tool, insights in another, recording decisions in yet another, and finally taking action in three or four more.
The one tool that would collapse all of that into a single place never gets built. Not because it is hard to design, but because a tool is not a screen, it is a project: somewhere to run, a way to sign in, a place to keep what people enter, and somebody who still owns it in a year.
That is why we built Knowi Apps. You describe the tool your team needs, and Knowi builds it as a real application on the data you have already connected, the business context you have already defined, and the access rules already sitting on your users.
Apps are live now for Knowi accounts where the feature has been enabled.
TL;DR
- Knowi Apps builds real applications from a plain-language description, running on the data already connected to Knowi and the business context already in your semantic layer.
- Apps inherit your existing access rules. Permissions are never rebuilt for the app and cannot be looser than what the signed-in user already has.
- Every App is a real web application with its own frontend and backend, served from its own URL, with the source in a Git repository you can own.
- Sign-in is chosen per app: Knowi credentials, your existing SSO or SAML, or public with no authentication.
- A dashboard is something your team looks at. An App is something your team works in: it sends, records, and triggers the next step.
- You describe the job, Knowi builds the app with you, and you review it before anyone else sees it.
Table of Contents
Watch how Apps function
Reporting stops one step early
Analytics has got very good at telling you what happened. It has done almost nothing about what happens next.
The report says a location is slipping, or a payment failed, or a shipment is late. Then a person exports it, works it in a spreadsheet, opens a different system, and does the actual job. Usually days later. That is where the money moves, and no dashboard has ever touched it.
Apps are the part after the dashboard. Same data, same platform, same rules. The difference is that the work now happens in the same place as the number.
Apps run on what Knowi already knows
Nothing underneath changes.
Knowi connects to your data sources, pulls the data, and joins across those sources without you lifting and shifting anything first. The semantic layer sits on top and holds the business context: your terms, your synonyms for fields, your descriptions of what each asset actually is.
That is the same foundation already running your charts and dashboards, your embedded portals, your scheduled reports, your anomaly alerts, and the AI layer on top of it. Agentic BI chat, where anyone can ask a question and turn the answer into a new asset. The recommendation widget, which surfaces actionable insights and keeps refreshing as the data does.
Apps take that same foundation one step further. Your datasets and dashboards become the inside of a live application that can also talk to the other systems your team works in.
Building one: an app for a store manager
Here is the real flow, in order.
Open Knowi Apps under the AI menu and create a new app. Pick the datasets it is allowed to use. In this case, sales and operational datasets that already existed.
Then describe what you want. The whole brief was this:
An app for a store manager who needs to understand the highest performing items and the best performing locations. Include a button that emails the report to someone, with the datasets attached as CSV and an executive summary.
The rest is configuration, and each choice is a request you would otherwise have to file with somebody:
- A name and a URL. The URL you pick is the prefix the live app is served from.
- Where the code lives. Use Knowi managed and we create and run the repository for you. Or connect your own, or authenticate over SSH, and the source is yours from day one.
- Who gets in. Users sign in with their Knowi credentials, or the app is public with no authentication, or it uses your existing SSO or SAML. You choose per app, and nobody is standing up a new login system for security to review.
- Whether it needs its own database. Optional. Add one when the app has to remember things of its own, like usage or clicks, rather than only reading from your sources.
- Branding. Upload your logos and design references and the app is built with them.
Then generate the draft.
You do not have to be the person driving that screen. Most first apps get built with us. You describe the job, we build it, and you review it before anyone else sees it. The technical part is ours. The screens above are what that looks like from the inside.
What came out
The editor shows a live preview on the right. Publish it and the app is served from its own URL.
Signing in matters here. The version below is being viewed by someone logged into their own Knowi account, so it renders only the data that person is allowed to see.
From that one brief, the app came back with KPI cards across the top, sales and operating costs by month, top selling items, an operating cost breakdown by cost type, and performance by location. All of it pulled from datasets that already existed. All of it the set of numbers a store manager is actually accountable for.
And in the top right, the email report button that was asked for. The manager picks who it goes to, another store manager, the owner, a regional lead. The executive summary comes already written, the subject line is filled in, and the underlying datasets come down as CSVs to go with it.
That button is the whole difference. A dashboard would have shown the same five charts. It would not have sent anything to anyone.
How Apps differ from dashboards
A dashboard is something your team looks at. An App is something your team works in. The test is simple: if the answer on the screen still leaves somebody a job to do somewhere else, that job belongs in an App.
The patterns we keep seeing:
- The work queue. The accounts, members or locations that need attention this week, worked one by one, with the app recording what was done.
- The app that acts. It sends, files or triggers the next step in another system instead of telling you it needs doing.
- The customer-facing portal. An app your customers or partners sign into, at your own address, under your own brand.
- The thing that replaces the spreadsheet. It remembers what people type into it, so the working copy stops living on somebody’s laptop.
- The report that sends itself. Like the store manager app above, with the summary written and the data exported with it.
Access comes with the app
Knowi already holds the parts that make an app a project. The data is connected and joined across sources. The business context is in the semantic layer. Rights, roles and permissions are already governed user by user.
An App inherits all of it. Access is not rebuilt for the app and it cannot be looser than what the signed-in user already has. The app reaches the datasets it was pointed at, under the rules already on them, and nothing else.
None of this is a black box for your engineers either. Every App is a real web application with its own frontend and backend, not a rendered view inside a reporting tool. The source lives in a Git repository, and it can be your repository, on your own account, over GitHub or SSH. If your team ever wants to take the app in-house, it is already theirs.
Getting your first one
You do not need a developer and you do not need a project. Bring the job your team keeps doing by hand. The export that becomes a spreadsheet that becomes an email is almost always the first app.
Tell us that job and we build it with you, on your data, with your access rules already on it. You review it, and we publish it.
Already on Knowi? Apps has to be switched on for your account, so talk to your Knowi admin or your account team and we will enable it and build the first one with you. Not on Knowi yet? Bring the same job and we will show you what it becomes.
The Part After the Dashboard.
Your team already has the numbers. What they do not have is the tool that acts on them. Describe the job your team keeps doing by hand and we build it as a real application, on the data you have already connected, the business context already in your semantic layer, and the access rules already sitting on your users.
What you can do with Knowi Apps:
- Turn a dashboard into a work queue your team clears one item at a time.
- Send the report, file the record, or trigger the next step in another system.
- Stand up a customer-facing portal at your own address, under your own brand.
- Replace the spreadsheet that lives on somebody’s laptop with an app that remembers what people type.
- Sign users in with Knowi credentials, your own SSO or SAML, or leave the app public.
- Keep the source in your own Git repository, so the app is yours to take in-house.
Built for SaaS, healthcare, manufacturing, IoT and enterprise teams whose reporting ends one step before the work actually gets done.
Frequently asked questions
What is Knowi Apps?
Knowi Apps turns a described job into a real application running on the data you have already connected to Knowi, the business context in your semantic layer, and the access rules already on your users. You describe the tool your team needs and Knowi builds it. Apps are live now for Knowi accounts where the feature has been enabled.
How is a Knowi App different from a dashboard?
A dashboard is something your team looks at. An App is something your team works in: it can send a report, record what was done, trigger the next step in another system, or remember what people type into it. If the answer on the screen still leaves somebody a job to do somewhere else, that job belongs in an App.
Who builds the app, my team or Knowi?
You describe the job and Knowi builds the app with you, then you review it before anyone else sees it. Most first apps get built this way. The technical part is Knowi’s.
Where does a Knowi App’s source code live?
Every App is a real web application with its own frontend and backend, and the source lives in a Git repository. Use a Knowi-managed repository, connect your own GitHub account, or authenticate over SSH. If your team ever wants to take the app in-house, it is already theirs.
What sign-in options do Knowi Apps support?
You choose per app: users sign in with their Knowi credentials, through your existing SSO or SAML, or the app is public with no authentication. A signed-in user sees only the data their existing Knowi permissions allow, and access cannot be looser than what that user already has.