Studio

When to use
Concepts
Your first app in five steps
What you can build

Studio is the Axelor Open Platform low-code builder. You design custom models, views, actions, menus, selections, queries, dashboards and workflows visually, group them in a versioned project, and deploy them into the running application — no module to write, no restart. What you deploy is exactly the same metadata a module would ship, so anything built in Studio behaves like regular application code.

When to use

Reach for Studio when the customization is configuration-shaped: new business objects, screens, navigation, reports and process automation, iterated quickly on a running instance.

Alternative	Difference
Writing a module	Code — reviewable, testable, and required when you need Java business logic or integrations. Studio covers the declarative layer with a much faster loop, and can graduate: compiled entities and WAR export bridge into module territory.
Custom fields alone	Fine for adding a few fields to an existing model by hand. Studio does the same with a designer — plus whole models, views and logic — and keeps everything versioned in a project.
The AI assistant	Not an alternative — a faster way to drive Studio. Describe what you want in chat; the assistant creates the same resources and the designers remain your review surface.

Alternative

Difference

Writing a module

Code — reviewable, testable, and required when you need Java business logic or integrations. Studio covers the declarative layer with a much faster loop, and can graduate: compiled entities and WAR export bridge into module territory.

Custom fields alone

Fine for adding a few fields to an existing model by hand. Studio does the same with a designer — plus whole models, views and logic — and keeps everything versioned in a project.

The AI assistant

Not an alternative — a faster way to drive Studio. Describe what you want in chat; the assistant creates the same resources and the designers remain your review surface.

Concepts

Four words carry the whole system:

Project: The container of one app’s customizations, with module-like coordinates (name, package group, title).
Resource: One unit of customization — a model, a view, an action… Each opens in a visual designer.
Revision: A major.minor.patch version of the project that holds the resources. Draft revisions are editable; published ones are locked snapshots.
Deploy: Activating a revision makes its resources live; deactivating withdraws them. Nothing you edit is visible in the application until activated.

Your first app in five steps

The pages of this chapter walk through building a small Todo app:

Create a project and open its revision — Projects & Resources.
Create the Todo model and its status selection — Models, Selections.
Adjust the generated form and grid — Views.
Add an action and a menu entry to open it — Actions, Menus.
Activate the revision and try it — Lifecycle.

You can also just describe the app in the chat and review what the assistant builds — see Building with the AI Assistant.

What you can build

Resource	Documentation
Custom models, entities, enums, custom fields	Models
Views — form, grid, cards, kanban, calendar, tree, dashboard, custom	Views
Charts and data dashboards	Analytics
Selections	Selections
Actions	Actions
Menus	Menus
Saved queries	Queries
Workflows	Workflow designer
Anything above, conversationally	Building with the AI Assistant

Resource

Documentation

Custom models, entities, enums, custom fields

Models

Views — form, grid, cards, kanban, calendar, tree, dashboard, custom

Views

Charts and data dashboards

Analytics

Selections

Actions

Menus

Saved queries