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How Crow Nest works
Crow Nest hosts static web apps and gives each one the services it would otherwise need a backend for. This page explains the parts you'll meet everywhere else in the docs.
Apps and addresses
An app (the dashboard and the API sometimes call it a tool) is a folder of web files: index.html, scripts, styles and images, plus an optional crow.json and an optional server/ folder. Publishing uploads the folder; Crow Nest serves it at https://<name>.crow-nest.com.
- The name is chosen when you first publish and never changes. Some names are reserved (
www,app,api,docs,mailand similar). - An app can also have custom domains, like
booking.mybakery.com. It stays at its crow-nest.com address too. - Files are served from Cloudflare's network, cached at the edge after the access check.
Versions
Every publish creates a new version and makes it current. Old versions stay, so you can go back with rollback (MCP), the dashboard, or the API. A rollback doesn't create a new version; it points the app at the older one.
Viewers and sign-in
Everyone who opens an app that isn't public signs in to Crow Nest first, with Google, Microsoft, or a one-time code sent to their email. Sign-in happens once on crow-nest.com and carries over to each app address, so an app never handles passwords or tokens itself.
Inside the app, crow.me() tells the page who is looking. Rules in crow.json decide what each person can read and change. See Sharing and access for who can open an app, and Data for who can read and write its data.
Workspaces
Every app belongs to a workspace:
| Workspace | Who | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | One person's own apps | The person, on the personal plans |
| Organization | A group someone created themselves and invited people to | The organization's owner, on the personal plans |
| Company | A company Crow Nest set up, behind its own login | Per seat |
Organizations and companies share an app list, can share apps with everyone inside (org visibility), and have policies, shared AI keys and admins. See Organizations and companies.
What Crow Nest runs for you
| You need | Use | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Save and share data | crow.db collections with rules | Data |
| File uploads | crow.files buckets | Files |
| Updates that appear for everyone | watch and crow.live channels | Live updates |
| AI answers | crow.ai with your or your company's key | AI calls |
| A third-party API with a secret key | crow.api | Outside APIs and secrets |
| Webhooks, SQL, timers, background work | server/index.js | Server code |
All of these come from one script your page loads, /__crow/sdk.js, served by the app's own address.
What Crow Nest doesn't do
- It doesn't build your project on its servers. Build on your own machine (the
crowCLI does it for you) and publish the output. - It doesn't supply AI. Apps call models with keys you, your company or the app brings.
- It doesn't run long-lived servers or WebSockets in your server code.