Dev Studio Quick Start for Partners

Dev Studio builds an Ambivo app for your client from a description or a brief, in your browser, at devstudio.ambivo.com. You check each step and own the code at the end.

Before you start

You need four things, in this order. Ask your Ambivo contact for the second and third.

The sandbox is a test company for you alone. Your apps read and write sample data there, never in a client's company.

Build your first app

1. 1

   Sign in with GitHub

   Open devstudio.ambivo.com and click Sign in with GitHub.

2. 2

   Sign in to your sandbox

   Click Sign in to your Ambivo sandbox at the bottom left. Use your sandbox email and password. The assistant can then read your sandbox, set up your app's data and add sample records.

3. 3

   Describe the app

   Click New app. Give it a name and say what it should do: who uses it and what they get done. Add your client's brief if you have one: PDF, Word, Markdown or text, up to 10 MB.

4. 4

   Pick the assistant and start

   Pick Claude Code or Codex. Paste its key and click Start. You pick the assistant once, for the whole app.

5. 5

   Answer the questions

   The assistant asks a few questions, each with a recommended answer. Click Use your recommendations, or answer them all in one message in the box at the bottom.

6. 6

   Try the app

   Click Preview to try the app. It opens in a new tab. Sign in there with your sandbox email and password.

7. 7

   Ask for changes

   Tell the assistant what to change, in plain words. It changes the app, and the Preview shows the result.

The first Preview installs the app's parts, so it can take a few minutes. The assistant never asks you to run commands.

Large apps: phases

An app with more than about 5 screens, or one built from a client's brief, is built in phases. You approve each phase before the next one starts.

1. 1

   Phase 0: brief and data model

   The assistant reads the brief, asks its questions, and writes three files: the app brief, the data model and the phase plan. It builds no screens yet. Click Data model to see the app's data as a drawing.

2. 2

   Prototype (optional)

   Every screen with sample data held in the app. Your client can click through it from a share link before anything is set up.

3. 3

   One phase per part of the app

   Each phase ends with a short note of what it built and how to test it, and screenshots of its screens at desktop and phone width. Click Screens on the phase to see them.

4. 4

   Approve

   Read the note, look at the screens, try it in the Preview, then click Approve this phase and Start phase on the next one.

To change something in a phase you approved, click Reopen on it.

Cost

Every message to the assistant is charged to your own key. The page shows what each step cost and the total for the app. A 15-phase lab app built with Claude Code from a two-page brief cost $76.85. Most phases cost $2 to $9, and the first prototype phase about $20.

A Codex app shows the tokens it used instead of dollars.

Set a limit before a large app:

1. 1

   Click Spending limit in the top bar.

2. 2

   Enter a limit in US dollars for each phase.

   In an app without phases, the limit applies to each message.

3. 3

   Pick the model.

   Sonnet is faster and cheaper for routine phases. Opus is the most capable, for hard ones.

When a phase reaches its limit, the assistant stops and the page says so. Raise the limit to carry on.

The spending limit and the model apply to Claude Code. A Codex app uses the limits set on your OpenAI key.

Hand the app to your client

Set the app up for your client

The app keeps its data in your client's Ambivo company. It needs no database or server of its own.

Before anyone uses it, the app is set up once in that company:

1. 1

   An admin of your client's company runs the install step.

   It creates the app's own lists in that company, for example Projects or Trials. It changes nothing else.

2. 2

   Run it again after an update.

   It is safe to run more than once. It brings the lists up to date.

3. 3

   One company at a time.

   An app for several clients is set up once in each client's company.

The README file in the code lists the commands. It also says how to put the app online.

Delete an app

Click Delete and pick one:

• Delete the app in Dev Studio. Its files, conversation, preview and share link go. What it made in your sandbox stays.
• Also remove what it made in my Ambivo sandbox. Dev Studio first lists everything that will go. Type the app's name to confirm. It removes the app's own data and the sample records, and touches only your sandbox.

It keeps products that have stock movements, and the movements themselves, because Ambivo keeps every movement. The list tells you what it kept and why.

Good to know

• Sign-in. Your Dev Studio sign-in lasts 8 hours and renews while you use the page, for up to 7 days. Your sandbox sign-in lasts about 24 hours. The bottom left shows when it ends. Your apps are kept either way.
• Messages while it works. You can send a message while the assistant is working. It waits and goes to the assistant when the current step ends. Up to 5 can wait.
• Idle apps. An app nobody uses for 30 minutes is paused and its files are saved. It starts again on your next message or Preview.
• Your own tools. Prefer Claude Code, Codex or Cursor on your own computer? Ask your Ambivo contact for the dev kit. The same rules come with it.
• Your keys. The bottom left has buttons to change or delete your Claude key and your OpenAI key.
• Help. Write to your Ambivo contact with the app's name and what you saw.