Retool

Retool is a low-code platform for building internal tools, the dashboards, admin panels, and operational apps that teams use to run day-to-day business but rarely have time to build from scratch. You drag pre-built components onto a canvas, connect them to your databases and APIs, then add JavaScript or SQL for custom logic. Retool ships with 70+ native integrations, so a tool that queries a database and calls an API can go from idea to working app in hours instead of weeks. For AI builders, that speed matters: once an agent or model runs in production, you need a fast way to give humans a dashboard to monitor it, review its outputs, and step in when it gets something wrong.

How Retool works

Retool turns your existing data sources into a drag-and-drop app builder, so you spend your time on business logic instead of boilerplate code. Under the hood, it separates the interface from the backend, letting you build UI and queries independently, then wire them together.

• Visual editor: you build the interface by dragging pre-built components, tables, forms, buttons, charts, onto a canvas instead of writing HTML and CSS from scratch.
• Data source connections: Retool connects natively to over 70 sources, including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, REST APIs, and GraphQL, so you query real data without writing a custom backend.
• Queries: each component binds to a query, a saved request that pulls or writes data, written in SQL, JavaScript, or a no-code query builder.
• Custom code: when the drag-and-drop components aren’t enough, you drop into JavaScript to transform data, chain requests, or add logic the UI can’t express on its own.
• AI-assisted building: Retool’s AI features can generate a first draft of an app or query from a plain-English prompt, which you then refine manually.
• Deployment and permissions: once built, you publish the app to your team with role-based access control (RBAC), a system that limits who can view or edit which data and actions.

What you can build with Retool

• Admin panel: a tool that lets your support or ops team view, edit, and delete records in a production database without touching SQL directly, built by wiring a table component to a database query.
• AI agent oversight dashboard: a console that shows what an AI agent decided and why, letting a human approve or override the action before it executes, valuable because most production AI systems still need a human-in-the-loop, a step where a person reviews a decision before it takes effect.
• Customer support console: a unified view that pulls ticket data, order history, and account status from multiple APIs into one screen, so support agents stop switching between five tools to answer one question.
• Approval workflow app: a form-based tool that routes requests, like refunds or expense claims, through defined approval steps, built with Retool’s workflow automation, a way to trigger actions on a schedule or event without anyone clicking a button.
• Internal analytics dashboard: a live dashboard pulling from your data warehouse to track KPIs, key performance indicators, the metrics a team checks daily, valuable because it updates automatically instead of needing a manual spreadsheet refresh.
• Inventory and operations tracker: a tool to view stock levels, update SKUs, unique product identifiers, and flag low inventory, connected directly to your warehouse database so the data is always current.