# Applications

An application brings a user interface, workflows, connections, and data together around a task. It can be as small as a form that starts a workflow or as complete as a document workspace with search, extraction, tables, and human review.

## Choose how to begin

- **Template:** create an independent app from a platform starter or a template your team saved. Supply the parameters and connections it asks for.
- **Blueprint:** select a prepared experience and enter a title. Strive provisions the resources that blueprint needs.
- **Blank app:** build a layout and connect it to workflows in the app builder.
- **Portable file:** import a .strive.html package after reviewing what the destination must provide.

Start with a template when it already fits the work. Use the builder when your team needs a different arrangement, new interactions, or a different view of existing workflow records.

## Find and open an app

Open **Apps** to browse your apps. Search matches the name and app id; status filters help find running, sleeping, stopped, failed, in-progress, not-deployed, or deleting apps. Filters stay in the page address, so a refreshed or bookmarked filtered view keeps its selection.

Select an app to open its management workspace. **Overview** contains the running experience and lifecycle controls. Use **Open** to launch the app at its address. A permanent app address is a bookmark, not a grant of access: the app's sharing settings still decide who may use it.

## Build, run, and share

Saving an app definition changes its editable design. Starting or deploying makes its sandbox serve the experience. Publishing a fixed release creates a separate immutable snapshot, and activating selects the release to serve. These actions have different purposes; saving alone does not activate a release.

An app may reference workflows or outputs used elsewhere. Check dependencies before removing resources. Stopping the running environment preserves the app; moving it to Trash starts a retention period; permanent deletion removes retained resources that belong exclusively to it.

Continue with [Create from a template](/docs/apps/create-from-template), [The app workspace](/docs/apps/workspace), or [App builder](/docs/builder/overview).