When no family app does what you need, build a small one

The library has more than a hundred apps, and a surprising number of 'nobody makes this' needs are one of them under a different name. A rota is Shift Scheduler, a tally is Points & Recognition or Streaks, a sign-up sheet is Booking Slots, a list with owners is Tasks. Search the app library for the job, not the name, before you build anything.

If something is close but not right, that is still useful: it is the best starting point for the second route below, and the best brief for the third.

This is the route for someone who does not write code, and it needs nothing but a paragraph. An admin describes the app in plain language on the Apps page and the hub writes it, checks it and installs it into the household. There is no repository, no build step and no release.

Each step the AI takes costs one AI credit, from the allowance that comes with every paid plan. A new app is usually four to six steps, and a build stops after twelve. A step that produces nothing, because the AI declined or the call failed, is refunded. The full rules, and where credits come from, are in [Build an app with AI](/support/app-builder).

An admin who already works with Claude, or another assistant that speaks the Model Context Protocol, can also connect it under Settings, AI Access, give it the Admin access level, and ask it to build the app in conversation. It uses the same tools and lands in the same place; take the Admin level away again when the building is done.

What to expect honestly: this works best for small, specific apps, a list, a log, a tracker, a checklist. An AI can get privacy rules wrong the same way a person can, so read what the app says it reads and who it says can see each thing, and check what a child's account sees before a child uses it.

1. On the web, open the Apps page and choose Build your own app with AI. Only an admin sees it. In a shared space, only an admin of the household that sponsors the space can build there, and the credits come from that household.
2. Describe the app the way you would describe it to a person: who uses it, what they record, who should see what, and what it should show on the dashboard. 'The kids log reading minutes, adults can see everyone's, each kid only sees their own' is a good brief.
3. Watch it work. The page shows each step as it happens, and Stop ends the build if it is heading somewhere you did not mean.
4. When it finishes, open the app. If it asked to read household data an admin must approve, the page sends you to the Apps page to approve it first.
5. Use it for a few days before you rely on it. If something is wrong, start a new build and say what to change; the builder can change an app it made, or any app in the household, the same way.

An app you or an assistant wrote gets no special trust. Every app declares, in its manifest, which household data it reads and writes, and the hub refuses anything it did not declare. Its own data lives in your household's database, in tables that belong to that app alone, where no other app can read it. Rules about who can see which rows are enforced by the hub on every query, not by the app's own screens.

The hub also refuses manifests it cannot make safe before the app ever runs. If an app asks for approval, or an update asks to read something new, an admin approves it first. In a co-parenting space, installing an app is proposed to the other parent rather than done.

None of that makes a badly designed app a good one. It does mean a mistake in a custom app is contained to that app's own data, and that the data it can reach is written down where you can read it.

This is the route for someone comfortable with a code editor, or working alongside an assistant on their own computer. Almost every app in the library is open source and links to its repository from its page, so the closest existing app is usually the best starting point. For something new, there is a starter template on GitHub at firebirdsystems/chickadeebandit-app-template.

Keep the new id distinct from any app in the library. A copy that keeps the original's id is not a copy, it is a clash.

1. Copy the closest app, or the template, into a repository of your own and give the app a new id in its manifest.
2. Read the template's README first, then its reference and security notes. They cover how data is stored, how visibility rules work, and the handful of mistakes that pass every check and still misbehave, such as sorting on an encrypted column.
3. Run it locally with the included preview server, which fakes the hub well enough to click through the app.
4. Build it. The build checks the manifest and produces one bundle file.
5. Publish the bundle somewhere it has a public web address. The template includes a GitHub workflow that attaches it to a release on every push.
6. In the hub, open the Apps page and paste the bundle's address into Install from URL. Before anything installs, you see the app's name, what it reads and writes, and who it is for.

If you would rather not build it at all, tell us what you need at support@chickadeebandit.com. A household asking for something specific is the best brief we get, and a fair number of the apps in the library started as exactly that.

We cannot promise every request. An app that only makes sense for one household is usually better built for that household than shipped to everyone, and then one of the routes above is the faster answer. It is still worth asking, especially if you found an app that is nearly right: 'Chores, but with a weekly rotation between two houses' tells us more than a page of description.

If the app is small and you do not write code, describe it on the Apps page. If you want to own the source, share the app with other households, or change an existing app substantially, start from its repository. If what you want sounds like something many families would use, ask us first; it may already be on the way, and an app in the library is maintained by someone other than you.

• Shared Notes
• Grocery List
• Chores & Allowance

Every app in the library is included with the household plan. Install the ones this guide uses and skip the rest.

• How the household apps compare
• Seven questions to ask any family app before you put your household in it
• How to share the mental load at home, not just the chores