# What is Foundation

Foundation is the backend your app needs — users, payments, data, AI, integrations — already built and
running. You build the part that's actually yours; Foundation handles the hard infrastructure
underneath so you never have to.

## Skip the infrastructure

Every app needs the same hard, boring groundwork: logging people in, storing data, taking payments,
exposing an API, and running it all reliably. It takes months and a team to build — and it's nearly
identical every time.

Foundation gives you all of it, ready to go. You don't build auth, a database, billing, or deployment.
You turn them on and configure them, and spend your time on what makes your app *different*.

## You bring the app. Foundation brings the backend.

- **Your app** — the interface your users see and the experience that makes it yours. Build your own
  UI, or start from ours.
- **Foundation's backend** — users, payments, data, files, AI, integrations, and an API — configured,
  not coded, and wired together for you.

Your frontend talks to that backend through a connector and SDK Foundation provides: login, data,
payments, and integrations are already there. You write what's unique to your app, not the plumbing.

> Building an API service or an MCP server with no UI at all? That works too — skip the frontend and
> just use the endpoints.

## You decide. Your agent builds.

You don't have to write the frontend by hand, either:

- **You're the director.** You decide what your app should do and how it should feel. You don't need to
  know how the backend pieces fit together — Foundation does, and these docs hand that knowledge to
  your agent.
- **Your agent is the builder.** An AI agent — our wizard, Claude Desktop, or your own — configures the
  backend and builds your app against it, using the SDK and components Foundation provides.

You bring the idea. Foundation brings the backend. Your agent does the assembly.

## Turn on only what you need

The backend is modular — every app starts simple and adds capabilities:

| Capability | What it gives your app |
|---|---|
| **Users & accounts** | Login, registration, profiles |
| **Payments** | Subscriptions and plans (via [Stripe billing](/platform/billing)) |
| **Data** | Your own database, files, and storage |
| **AI** | Prompts and actions wired to your data |
| **Integrations** | Connect outside services — Stripe, Slack, Google, and more |
| **API & MCP server** | Your app can be used by other apps and AI agents |

Not every app needs all of these. An API service might skip users entirely; a membership site leans on
users and payments. You choose.

## Two jobs: configure, then build

1. **Configure** — set up the backend: what your app does, who can use it, what it charges. No code —
   done in the dashboard, by talking to the wizard, or through Claude.
2. **Build** — build your app's experience on top of it: your UI (or ours), wired to the backend with
   Foundation's SDK and components.

The rest of these docs follow that split. The **Configure** section covers setting things up; the
**Build** section covers making the app.

## Three ways to do it

You're never locked into one way to work:

- **Dashboard** — click through and configure visually.
- **Wizard** — describe what you want in plain language; our AI configures it.
- **Claude Desktop / MCP** — do everything through conversation. No UI needed.

See [Three ways to build & manage](/understand/three-ways-to-build) for how each works, or jump to the
[Quickstart](/guide/quickstart).