Configure vs build

Working with Foundation has two jobs, and it helps to keep them straight. One sets up the backend; the other turns it into an app people use.

Configure — set up the backend

Configuring is deciding what your app is: which capabilities are on, how they're set, who can use them, what it charges. It's no-code — done in the dashboard, with the wizard, or through Claude.

This is the Configure section of these docs — Branding, Authentication, Billing, Data, and so on. Each page tells you what to decide and what each choice means.

Build — make the app

Building is turning the configured backend into a running application: a frontend (or another app, or an agent) that uses what you set up — the endpoints, the auth, and the components Foundation provides.

Here's the part that matters if you're not a developer: you don't build it by hand — your agent does. You say what you want; your agent uses the Foundation SDK to assemble it. The Build section is written for exactly that — plain-language directions up front, the exact code underneath.

How they hand off

You decide  →  Configure the backend  →  Your agent builds the app  →  Deploy
(director)      (any of the three ways)    (using what you configured)

The same split shows up on every feature page:

• Configure — the decisions you make (director).
• Use in your app — how your agent builds with it (builder).

So a single page like Billing covers both: set up your plans, then have your agent wire them in.

Next: Managing vs running.