The In-Browser Editor
App Code is an editor inside the platform for working on extension source.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Layout & Pages:
- App Code — the in-browser editor
Architect Panel → Automation:
- Extensions — the extension registry, its versions and runs
Architect Panel → Security:
- Permissions — who may reach the editor
What it gains you
- No local setup. Anybody authorised can make a change from anywhere.
- The code sits beside what it acts on — the datastores and configuration are right there.
- No deployment step for a change to a draft.
And what it costs
Editing production code in a browser is exactly as consequential as it sounds. There is no local branch, no pull request by default, and nobody reviewing over your shoulder.
The convenience is real and it removes the friction that normally makes people careful. That friction was doing something.
Restrict who has it
Access to the editor is the ability to change how the application behaves — equivalent to deploying code, and it should be granted on that basis rather than because somebody is an administrator.
Check who has it periodically. It is exactly the permission that gets granted for convenience and never reviewed.
Work in drafts
The single most important habit. The draft-and-promote model exists so editing is not deploying — use it every time, including for changes that feel too small to matter.
Have a review habit
Nothing enforces review here, so it has to be a practice. Even a colleague reading a diff before promotion catches a meaningful proportion of mistakes, and it is the only check between an edit and production.
Keep source somewhere else too
Version history exists in the platform, and it is not a substitute for your own repository. Keeping a copy under version control gives you branching, review, history alongside the rest of your work, and something to restore from if an instance is rebuilt.
Do not use it as a scratchpad
Experimenting against production data is how something is left half-changed. Where you need to try something, do it in a non-production instance.
Mind what you paste in
Credentials, tokens and connection strings do not belong in extension source. They belong in the platform's own credential storage, where they are encrypted and rotatable.
Worked example
An organisation grants editor access to two people, both of whom would be allowed to deploy. Changes are made in drafts, reviewed by the other before promotion, and mirrored into the organisation's repository. Nothing has been promoted without a second pair of eyes in eighteen months.
Recommendations
- Restrict access as you would deployment rights.
- Always work in a draft.
- Establish a review habit — nothing enforces one.
- Keep a copy in version control.