Blog
Notes from the croft.
How to host and share private apps you build with AI - with your team, behind company login.
Turn a spreadsheet financial model into a private team app
Turn an Excel or spreadsheet financial model into a private team app with a shared URL and saved numbers, not emailed workbooks or wrap-the-sheet tools.
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Host a financial model from Claude so your team can use it
Built a forecast or investment model in Claude? Host it as a private team app with a shared URL and saved numbers, not emailed HTML or chat-only copies.
Deploy a Cursor app for your company (private, with company login)
How to deploy a Cursor app privately for your team: full-stack with a database included, company login across apps, backups and rollback. Not a public Vercel preview.
App hosting with backups and versioning
Where to host a small business app with continuous backups and one-click versioning, so an AI change does not brick the team tool.
What is a software factory? (and when Croft is one)
A software factory turns a description of an app into a live product on a repeatable line. Croft is one for private internal apps your team can open.
How to deploy an internal tool without managing servers
You built an internal app with AI. Here is how to deploy it for your team without nginx, Docker, or a devops ticket.
Where to host an app I built with AI
You built a business app with Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor. Here is how to pick hosting that your team can actually use, without becoming a devops person.
How to share a Claude artifact with your team
A Claude artifact lives in your chat. Emailing the HTML is not a real share. Here is how to host it so your team can open it like a normal app.
Where to host a vibe-coded app so it stays private
You built an internal app with Cursor or Claude. Public hosts put a URL on the internet. Here is what private hosting actually means, and when Croft fits.
Your app is the memory. The model is not.
A nut allergy, a default store, last week's roster: those facts belong in your app's database, not in a chat transcript. Croft gives every app a real store.
Skills, not a swarm of agents
One assistant with tools and a bit of know-how beats a pile of specialist agents handing a roster between them. That is how Croft talks to Cursor and Claude.
Safety lives in the platform, not the prompt
An AI-built internal app should not be trusted to enforce login, access, or payments. Those rules belong in the host, where a prompt cannot skip them.
What is WebMCP (and why it matters)
WebMCP lets a website hand AI agents structured tools to call directly, instead of screen-scraping and guessing at buttons. What it is, and why it matters.
How to build a good app with AI
The mistake is trying to describe the whole thing in one giant prompt. Good apps are built the way good software always has been: start with the smallest useful version, check it, then grow it one change at a time.
Introducing Croft Build
Croft Build is an AI chat built right into Croft - create and update apps where they live, with no assistant to connect. Bring your own AI over MCP for no AI fees, or use Build's optional credits.
The vibe-coding SDLC
Enabling vibe coding blindly invites a data breach. Banning it invites shadow AI. A third path: a lifecycle that lets your whole team build safely.
From apps to agents
Apps you build on Croft can now call major LLMs - Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini. Add scheduled tasks and webhooks, and you're building agents that run themselves.
What is an AI artifact - and why it isn't an app
Artifacts are the pages, calculators, and dashboards your AI builds right in the chat. Here's what they are, how they work, and where they run out of road.
Turn an AI artifact into a real app
Your assistant built a brilliant artifact - a model, a calculator, a dashboard. Here's how to deploy it to Croft so your team can use it, with the data saved.
How to turn a Google Sheet into an app
That spreadsheet doing a job it was never built for? Here's how to turn a Google Sheet into a real app - with a database, a login, and a shareable link.
How to share an app you built with AI - privately
A screenshot or a file isn't sharing. Here's how to share an AI-built app as a real link that only the people you invite can open.
How to send email from an app you built with AI
Want your AI-built app to send a confirmation, reminder, or report? Here's how to send email from an app on Croft - without an email API key in the app.
How to schedule automated reports from an app you built with AI
Stop pulling the same numbers by hand every week. Here's how to make an app you built with AI send a report on a schedule - a summary that just arrives.
How to host an app built with Microsoft Copilot
Build apps from inside Microsoft Teams. Here's how to connect Copilot to Croft so your whole team can build apps that are hosted, private, and shared.
How to host a Grok-generated app
Grok can write you a working app, but it can't host it. Here's how to deploy a Grok-built app online, with a database and a login, in a few clicks.
How to host a Claude-generated web app
Claude can build a working web app, but it can't host it. Here's how to put a Claude- generated app online - with a URL, a database, and a login - in minutes.
How to host a ChatGPT-generated app
ChatGPT can generate a working app, but not host it. Here's how to deploy a ChatGPT-built app online, with a real database and a login, in a few clicks.
How to give an AI-generated app a real database
AI-built apps and artifacts don't remember anything you type in. Here's how to give an AI-generated app a real database so its data is saved and shared.
How to deploy an app from ChatGPT Canvas
ChatGPT Canvas is great for building an app, but it runs in the chat. Here's how to deploy a Canvas app to a real web address with a database and a login.
How to connect an AI-built app to Stripe
Your AI can build an app that takes payments or reads Stripe data - if the key never lives in the app. Here's how to connect an AI-built app to Stripe.
How to build an internal tool without a developer
The little app your team needs isn't worth a developer's time. Here's how to build and host an internal tool without code - by chatting with AI.
How to build a private client portal with AI
Give each client a login to see their projects, files, and updates. Here's how to build a private client portal by chatting with AI - no developer needed.
How to add a login to an AI-generated app
Don't ask the AI to write your login - it's the easiest thing to get wrong. Here's the safe way to put an AI-generated app behind a login your team can use.
Connectors now pass through custom headers
Some APIs need a specific header or an unusual body. Croft's connector broker now forwards custom headers and raw bodies - with the key still held by Croft.
A private, self-owned alternative to Replit and Lovable
Replit and Lovable are built for shipping public products. If you want AI-built apps that stay private on a server that's yours, here's the alternative.
The official Croft agent plugin
One step to make any compatible AI agent a Croft builder - the tools and the know-how, on an open standard, secured with per-user sign-in.
Your data is yours - export and no lock-in
Cancel any time and take everything: code, database, files, packaged to run anywhere Docker does. Leaving should be boring.
Connectors & data governance: shared data, on your terms
Let your apps use the tools you already run on - Stripe, your CRM, your email - with the keys held by Croft and admin approval for the sensitive stuff.
Who can do what: roles on Croft
Owner, Admin, Creator, Member - a small, clear set of roles for giving your team the right access without turning it into a security project.
Enterprise-grade security, none of the enterprise
Everything starts locked. Single sign-on, least-privilege access, approval gates, and audit trails - built in, so there's nothing to wire up or get wrong.
Automations: apps that work while you sleep
Give any app a schedule and it runs on its own - reminders, nightly syncs, weekly reports - and, with your own AI, it can read and decide for you too.
A public form out front, private results behind your login
Ask your assistant for a survey and it ships the whole thing - a public link anyone can open, with every response kept private to you.
Bring your own AI
Croft doesn't resell AI or meter tokens. You build with the Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok account you already have - no markup, no lock-in to one model.
Turn a pricing spreadsheet into an app
The quarterly spreadsheet you email around, turned into a real app your team can use - in one conversation, with no file to lose track of.
Why we built Croft
An AI can write you an app in minutes. Giving it a home - a server, a login, a database, a way to share it - is the hard part. That's the gap Croft fills.
Stake out your croft.
Your team's first app could be live before lunch.
Get your croft7 days free, no card to start. From $24/month - cancel anytime and take everything with you.