> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.genie-app.de/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Genie Tools: small internal apps, described not built
> A Genie Tool is a small internal app — a table, a form, a stat, a button — described to Genie AI in chat and rendered natively in your workspace. No code, no separate database: it reads and writes your workspace's own tables.
Alongside Genie Apps and Genie Agents, a workspace can also hold **Genie Tools** — small internal apps with a screen, but nothing you build or deploy. You describe what you want to Genie AI ("a table of orders, and a form to add one"), and Genie renders it live, right there in the chat and on its own page in your workspace.
Open **Tools** in the workspace sidebar to see every Genie Tool in the workspace, or open one directly at its own page under `/workspace//tools`.
## How it's different from an App or an Agent
| | Genie App | Genie Agent | Genie Tool |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| What it is | Generated code, deployed | A sequence of steps, run durably | A description, rendered live |
| Runs when | Someone visits it | A trigger fires, or you run it | Someone opens it, or presses something in it |
| Has a screen | Yes, its own | No — see [Genie Agents](/workspaces/workflow-apps) | Yes, drawn by Genie's own components |
| Where its data lives | Its own Genie Cloud database | Whatever it's told to read or write | Your workspace's own tables — no Genie Cloud project needed |
The short version: an **Agent** runs on its own and has no screen; a **Tool** has a screen and only runs when someone opens it. Both can read and write the exact same data — a Genie Agent can drop new rows into a workspace table overnight, and a Genie Tool can show them the next morning, with nothing to wire up between the two.
## Building one
There's no separate form-based builder — Genie AI is how you create and change a Genie Tool, the same conversation you'd use for anything else in Genie:
* *"Build me a tool with a table of orders and a form to add one"*
* *"Add a button that marks the selected order as shipped"*
* *"Show a running total of orders at the top of the page"*
Genie AI shows the tool working right in the chat as it builds it — a live table, a working form — not just a description of what it did. Once you're happy with it, it's saved and appears on the **Tools** page — private to you until you share it, the same as a [Genie Agent](/workspaces/workflow-apps#managing-an-agent): open its settings menu (**⋯**) and choose **Everyone in the workspace** or **Only selected people**.
Because there's no separate editor, changing a tool is always a conversation: *"add a column for the customer's phone number"* or *"remove the delete button, I don't want anyone deleting orders by accident."*
## What a Genie Tool can show
A tool's page is built from a small set of building blocks, and Genie AI picks and arranges them for you:
| Block | Shows |
| --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Text | A line or two of written content |
| Stat | One number or value with a label |
| Chart | A line, bar, or pie chart drawn from a table or another block's data |
| KPI | One number with a trend line and a comparison against another segment |
| Compare | Two or more segments of your data side by side, with the differences highlighted |
| Anomalies | Outliers, empty fields, and duplicate rows found automatically in a table |
| Insights | An AI-written summary of what stands out in a table |
| Table | Rows of data, with the columns you want |
| Import | Upload one or more spreadsheets — from your device, or straight from your [knowledge base](/workspaces/overview#knowledge-base) — into a workspace table. Columns are matched automatically, with Genie AI stepping in only for a heading it can't place on its own |
| Files | The files already imported into a table, each removable on its own or all at once |
| Export | Download a whole table as CSV, Excel, or PDF |
| Raw data | Any result, formatted for reading |
| Form | Fields that run an action when submitted — add a row, update one, anything you describe. A field can also be a file upload of any type, kept just for that one submission or filed straight into your [knowledge base](/workspaces/overview#knowledge-base) — dropped directly, or picked from a knowledge folder |
| Button | Runs an action with no input needed — mark something done, send a digest |
Every block handles the in-between states on its own: a table shows a loading skeleton while it fetches, says plainly when it's empty, and if something fails, the rest of the page still renders with the failure named next to whatever broke — one bad block never blanks the whole tool.
A **Table** block is searchable and sortable, with sticky headers so a long list stays readable — and where the tool turns it on, a checkbox column lets you select rows to act on together, like exporting just the ones you picked. A cell holding a single link renders as a clickable thumbnail for an image, a named download link for a file, or a plain link for anything else, instead of raw text.
Uploads — into an **Import** block, a file field in a **Form**, or picked from your [knowledge base](/workspaces/overview#knowledge-base) — take files up to 200 MB. Anything large is compressed automatically to keep things fast; ask Genie AI to turn that compression up or down for a specific file field if the default doesn't suit what you're uploading.
## Pages, and a form that asks one thing at a time
A tool with a lot going on isn't one long scroll: a page that's both long and mixing different jobs — importing data, managing it, reading a chart — is automatically split into focused pages, typically **Dashboard**, **Upload**, **Manage**, and **Analytics**, each carrying just the blocks it needs. The page you're on is part of the tool's URL, so a link to a tool can point at one specific page, and a tool keeps up to 10 pages (see [Limits](#limits)).
A page can also run as a **form**: instead of one long form block, it's drawn one question at a time with a progress line, ending on a thank-you screen once it's submitted — the same shape as a typeform.
## Where the data lives
A Genie Tool's data lives in your workspace's own tables — a schemaless place to keep records that doesn't require a Genie App or a Genie Cloud database at all. Ask Genie AI for "a tool with a table of leads" and it creates the table the first time something is written to it; there's no schema to design up front, and adding a new field later is just as conversational as asking for the tool itself.
These same workspace tables are also available as a step inside a [Genie Agent](/workspaces/workflow-apps) — so an agent can gather leads overnight and insert them, and a Genie Tool can list them the next morning, both reading and writing the exact same rows.
A Genie Tool always runs using **your own** access — opening one, or having someone else open it, never hands out anyone else's data or credentials. If a tool reads from one of your connected integrations, it does so with your own connection, exactly as if you'd asked Genie AI for that information directly.
## Limits
| Limit | Value |
| ------------------------------ | ------- |
| Pages per tool | 10 |
| Blocks per page | 30 |
| Fields per form | 20 |
| Columns per table block | 30 |
| Rows returned per read | 200 |
| Rows changed per write | 100 |
| Workspace tables per workspace | 100 |
| Rows per workspace table | 500,000 |
Ask Genie AI things like *"list our Genie Tools"* or *"add a row to the leads table"* — it can read, build, run, and edit tools and their underlying tables on your behalf, the same as you can from the Tools page.
## Related pages
Backend automations that share the same data nodes as a Genie Tool, including workspace tables.
Find your way around the workspace and its sidebar.