Introducing Coalesce Apps: Turn Your Data Team’s Process Into a Tool

Every data team works differently. Maybe your team checks every change against a ticket, follows a strict Data Vault pattern, or spends time mapping legacy columns to new ones, rule by rule. No two teams are the same-and that's exactly why flexibility matters.

But lately, it feels like the industry's answer to every workflow challenge is just… another chat box.

Nobody wants more chat boxes. People want to see their data in a way that matches how they actually work.

That's why we built Coalesce Apps, the next big step for every team on Coalesce. With Apps, your workflow becomes a tool, tailored to your team, right on top of your governed project. Engineers and team leads finally get purpose-built screens with your rules built in. The result? Work moves faster-no new tools to buy, secure, or synchronize.

What is a Coalesce App?

A Coalesce App is a purpose-built tool designed to fit your team's unique workflow. Every app is made of three simple pieces:

• Views: Each role-data engineer, team lead-gets a view built for the work in front of them. No more chat boxes or walls of code. Just the information you need, when you need it.
• Logic: Your team's unique process is built right into the app. Whether you're generating Data Vault hubs and links or mapping legacy columns, the work runs the same way every time-no more reinventing the wheel.
• Rules: You decide the checks every change must pass (from gates to approvals) and exactly where an engineer needs to step in before anything ships.

Coalesce opens each app in a tab, right where you're already building. One team might use a workspace explorer to get a quick overview, another might use a data modeler to follow the right pattern, and a third might rely on a ticket review queue to stay on top of what needs attention.

Different views. One governed project.

Why build it on Coalesce, and not yourself?

Many teams try to build their own workflow tools, often turning to automation for a quick start. Spinning up the first screen is easy-the real challenge comes after that.

As soon as a homegrown tool touches production pipelines, suddenly you need naming standards, shared node types, build templates, and tests for every change. Then come approval gates, branching, merges, version history, and lineage. Before you know it, you're also dealing with run history, environments, permissions, rollbacks, agent instructions, documentation, cost controls, and an audit trail.

Someone has to build and maintain these tools. Suddenly, the things that were supposed to save time are now eating it up.

Coalesce Apps skip all of that. Every app runs on top of your governed project, reading and writing the same Nodes, columns, lineage, and branches your pipelines use-not to mention your Node Types, macros, subgraphs, Git changes, and warehouse connection.

No exports. No copies. No second source of truth. What your team approves in the app is exactly what ships to production.

"People don't want another chat box. They want to see their data the way they work," says Jesse Marshall, Chief Customer Officer at Coalesce. "Teams that build their own tools often end up maintaining something that was meant to save time, but now just eats it up. With Apps, every team gets a custom view, but it's all still one governed project."

Start with an app from the App Marketplace

The fastest way to get started is the App Marketplace. Install one of our approved apps in a few clicks, then run it as-is or make it yours.

Spec-to-Pipeline Builder: our recommended first app

If you install only one app, make it the Spec-to-Pipeline Builder. You describe the pipeline you need, and agents build it in your workspace, with you approving every step that matters:

1. You describe what you need. Write a description, attach a spec, or use the built-in form to create one.
2. The agent proposes a plan. It lists the Nodes it will create or reuse, the questions it needs you to answer, and the tests it will add.
3. You approve. Nothing is built until you do.
4. The agent builds in a private copy. Your workspace stays untouched while Coalesce validates the work.
5. You review and apply. When you're happy with the result, you apply it to your workspace.

You aren't limited to one build at a time, either. Every request is its own thread so that you can have one plan waiting for your approval, two pipelines building, and another ready for review, all side by side. The sidebar and Home screen show where each one stands and what's waiting on you.

There's nothing extra to set up and no authentication step. The app runs on the Claude Code already installed on your computer, under your own sign-in.

The result is that work that used to take months takes hours, and an engineer still has the final say.

Data Modeler: see your workspace as a model

Pipelines show how data moves. A data model shows what it means. The Data Modeler app lets you model your Coalesce workspace the way your team thinks about it, whether that's source models, star schemas, 3NF, or Data Vault.

In the app, you can:

• Tag columns with roles so keys, measures, and attributes are clear at a glance.
• Give Nodes and columns business labels that the rest of the company recognizes.
• Draw relations between Nodes.
• Plan Nodes that aren't built yet, so the design comes before the build.
• Export one DBML file per model to share or document your design.

Everything you add is saved as files in your workspace. Your model is versioned, reviewed, and shared in Git along with the pipeline it describes.

Every app is yours to shape. You decide what it shows and what it checks.

Or build your own, with your agent

Not every process has an app yet. When yours doesn't, you can use automation tools, like Claude Code, to build one that fits the Coalesce app spec.

If your team is in the middle of a migration, you could provide instructions like this:

Review the Coalesce app spec. Then build an app that checks legacy-to-new column mappings and highlights anything that doesn't match.

The agent reads the Coalesce app spec and starts building a mapping review app inside your project. Coalesce opens the finished app in a tab, right where you build, and you review it the way you'd review any other change.

Apps live in your Coalesce repo

Apps aren't a separate system to deploy or keep running. Each one lives in your Coalesce repo, right next to your Nodes, Node Types, and macros. Commit the app, and everyone who opens the project gets the same app at the same version. Its history, reviews, and rollbacks work just like the rest of your pipeline.

One foundation, one standard

Your team will keep growing, and so will the number of tools and automations your engineers run. Each person and each tool may want work to look a little different. That's fine. With Coalesce Apps, every team gets the view that fits its work, while every pipeline is still built, governed, and reviewed on the same data operating layer.

No matter how many engineers you have, and no matter how many agents they run, they all build on Coalesce. Your data. Your agents. Your apps. One foundation. One standard.

Coalesce Apps run in Coalesce Desktop (version 7.51 or later) and through the CLI. The App Marketplace is rolling out to organizations now. If you don't see it yet, talk to your account team.

Get started with Coalesce Apps

Already using Coalesce Desktop? Open Build Settings, then Apps, and install the spec-to-pipeline builder as your first app. To learn how apps work and how to build your own, see the Coalesce Apps documentation.

A Coalesce customer who isn't using Desktop yet? Install Coalesce Desktop to develop locally, then install your first app from the App Marketplace. For more on working locally with your agent, read Build Coalesce pipelines locally with your AI agent.

New to Coalesce? See Coalesce Apps in action, along with the Coalesce local development experience, in a demo with our team. Book a Demo