# 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](/platform/apps)** 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](/platform/billing) covers both: set up your plans, then have your
agent wire them in.

Next: [Managing vs running](/understand/managing-vs-running).