Databases

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Overview

Every Create project comes with a free database built in. As you chat with Create, it handles all database details - from designing the structure to writing the code that lets your app save and retrieve data from it.

Use databases to:

• Store user submissions (forms, feedback, uploads)

• Save content (blog posts, products, galleries)

• Persist data between uses of the app

• Build dynamic data-driven features

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Chat

Create automatically updates your database structure & how your app retrieves and stores data as you chat.

When a feature requires storing data, it:

1. Designs the database structure based on your description

2. Makes Functions to save and retrieve data from the database

3. Designs the Pages and Components to display and interact with the data

4. Connects everything to make sure your Pages use the Functions that retrieve/store data.

For example, if you say “Make me a tasks app”, Create:

As you continue describing your app, Create updates your database structure, Functions and Pages to match what you want.

Here are common ways to modify your database through chat:

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Setting the scene

It helps to start with a specific description of what you want your app to do.

Prompt:

Make a tasks app. Users should be able to add, view, and delete tasks. 

Each task has title, description and comments

Comments should show up under the task and show who wrote them.  

Create will:

• Make the tables needed

  • Make a Tasks table with title, description, and comments fields

  • Make a Users table with name and avatar fields

  • Make a Comments table with text and author fields

• Create Functions to save and fetch tasks, users, and comments

• Build a Page with a task list, add form, and comment list

• Make the Page use your Functions to save tasks when submitted and grab tasks to display

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Adding Fields

Add a description to todos. Show it below the title in italics.

Create will:

• Add the description column to the Todos table

• Update Functions to handle the new field

• Modify the UI to display descriptions

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Removing Fields

Remove the priority from todos, we won't use it anymore

Create will:

• Remove the priority column

• Update queries to exclude the field

• Clean up any UI elements showing priority

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Adding Tables

Let users add comments on todos. Each comment should have the text and who wrote it

Create will:

• Make a new Comments table

• Link it to the Todos table

• Add UI for viewing/adding comments

• Handle saving comments to the database

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Changing Structure

Instead of due dates, let's use status (Todo, In Progress, Done) to track progress

Create will:

• Convert the due_date field to a status field

• Update existing data

• Modify the UI to show status options

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Relationships

Let users assign todos to team members. Show their avatar next to each todo

Create will:

• Add user relationships to todos

• Update queries to fetch user data

• Show assignee info in the UI

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Filling Data

Generate 10 sample todos with different statuses and assignees

Create will:

• Generate 10 sample todos with different statuses and assignees based on your structure

• Insert the data into your database

• Preserve relationships between tables

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Validation

Make sure every todo has a title

Create will:

• Add validation rules to the database

• Update Functions to check data

• Show validation errors in the UI

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Viewing & Editing Data

Create comes with a built-in database viewer for manual edits to your data. You can quickly verify that data is being stored in the right way when you use your app.

Access it from:

• Chat - tap the database

• Project Selector- choose your database name

The database viewer lets you:

• See all tables

• Edit individual rows

• Sort and filter data

• Download data in bulk

• Run custom SQL queries to fetch data

You can also make your own internal tools to update multiple tables at once:

• Make a newPage

• Describe your tool and how it should update the database

• Try out your UI

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Test vs. Live DB

Create maintains separate test and live databases for each project:

Test Database

• Used in Demo mode from the builder

• Allows you to make sure your app is saving data correctly before publishing

Live Database

• Used in your published app

• Access your live database from the builder

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Publishing

When you publish your app, Create automatically:

• Creates your live database

• Applies the latest structure from the Test database to your Live database so that it has the same tables and fields

• Runs your app with that structure

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Errors

Here are some good ways to troubleshoot common errors:

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Data isn’t saving or retrieving

If data isn’t saving when you use your app, there are 3 common failure points to check. Go in this order to test each isolation:

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1. Database Structure

How to check:

• Open the database viewer

• Verify tables and fields match what you expect

If there’s an issue:

• Describe the correct structure you want in chat

• Example: “Update the Tasks table to have title, description, and dueDate fields”

• Create will modify the database to match

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2. Function -> Database

How to check:

• Identify which function saves or retrieves data from the database. Tap on it.

• Open the Test Runner (3-dot menu > Test)

• Enter sample data and run the test

• Check database viewer to verify data was saved

• Delete test records if needed

If there’s an issue:

• Copy any error messages

• Paste them into the function chat

• Ask Create to fix the specific error

• Example: “I see this error when I run saveTask and test it with this data: [error] [example data]“

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3. UI -> Function

How to check:

• Try the app in Demo mode from the UI

• Check that data is being saved when you use the app in the database viewer

• Verify your page/component references the correct function

• Type / in chat to see if function is linked

• Try the flow in Demo mode

• Watch database viewer to see if records appear

If there’s an issue:

• Verify your page/component references the correct function

• Example: “Connect the tasks form to the saveTask function when I submit a task”

• Create will update the code to properly wire everything together

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Reset

When you publish your app, Create pushes your test database structure to your live database. If you continue making changes to your test database structure in the builder and don’t like the changes, you can reset to the structure of your last published version.

This is helpful when:

• You’ve made experimental changes you don’t want to keep
• Your database structure has become complex or incorrect
• You want to start fresh from your last stable version

To reset your database structure:

1. Open your database in the builder
2. Look for the “Reset” button in the top right corner
3. Confirm that you want to reset to the published version

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Removing Multiple Databases

In 99.99% of cases, you don’t need multiple databases per project. A single database can have an arbitrary number of tables. It’s easy to add more tables (just describe what you want to store, and Create adds a table for it). It’s better to have multiple tables in the same database than multiple databases as it makes joins easier.

If you have multiple databases in a single project, you can remove ones you don’t need:

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Using an Existing Database

Create will automatically create a new database for your project. However, there are some scenarios where you might want to use an existing database for a new project:

• You already have data in one database that you want to reuse for a new app
• You’re making a new app or frontend for the same data (e.g. an internal tool or another app)

To add an existing database to your project:

1. Go to the new project
2. Press / > Databases > select the database you want to use
3. Prompt Create on what you want to build with the database chip in the chat

If you no longer want to use this database in your project, you can remove it from the project.

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FAQ

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Helpful Database Terms

Create handles the technical details of your database, but understanding some key concepts can help you work more effectively.

Think of a database as a collection of connected spreadsheets:

• A table is like a spreadsheet (e.g., “Users”, “Products”)
• Fields (or columns) are the types of information stored (e.g., “name”, “email”)
• Rows are individual entries
• Relationships connect data between tables using foreign keys

Key terms explained: