Data, accounts and Newly Backend

Newly v2, at app.newly.app and in Newly for Mac, builds your app to keep its data on the device unless it needs more. When your app needs accounts or data shared between people, the agent adds Newly Backend.

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Apps start local-first

By default, a new app saves its data on the phone. There are no accounts, no server and no sign-in, and there’s nothing to host. The agent adds a backend only when your app needs one, for example when you ask for:

• sharing data between people
• more than one user, or user accounts and sign-in
• syncing data across devices
• payments

If your request doesn’t make it clear, the agent asks you one plain question first, such as whether other people should be able to sign in and see the same data. Answer in your own words.

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What Newly Backend includes

When the agent adds Newly Backend, your project gets:

• A sign-in service for your app’s users. Email and password sign-in work right away. See Sign-in for your app.
• An API service for your app’s own server code and endpoints.
• A Postgres database for each environment.
• File storage for things like photos and uploads.

The first setup takes a few minutes. The agent sets up the backend, connects your app to it, and then tells you what your app can now do. You don’t need to run anything yourself. The backend code lives in the backend/ folder of your project, next to your app code. Database changes are made through migrations, which the agent writes and applies for you.

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Dev and production

Newly Backend has two separate environments: The agent only works on dev, and it connects your app to your dev backend. Data you create while testing stays in the dev database and doesn’t appear in production. Shipping your backend to production is a step you take yourself, as the project’s owner or a project Admin. See Production and secrets.

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See your backend’s status

On Mac: with a chat open, open Settings, then Publishing, and find the Newly Backend row. It needs the project folder on your Mac and a sign-in to the newly CLI. When both are in place, it shows whether the backend is connected, the status of dev and production, and the address of each dev service. Otherwise it tells you what’s missing. Click Refresh to update it. The row is read-only. The web app doesn’t show backend status.

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See and edit your data

Open the Database tab in the sidebar, on the web or on Mac. The owner switches between Dev and Production at the top. The tab lists the tables in that database, grouped by service, and shows a table’s rows 50 at a time. In Dev you can change data by hand:

• Change a value: click a cell, type the new value, and click Save. Set NULL empties it.
• Add a row: click Add row. A field you leave blank gets its default.
• Delete rows: tick them, click Delete, then confirm.

Changes save straight to the database. If a value doesn’t fit its column, the database’s own error shows under the field and nothing changes. Tables without a primary key and views can’t be edited here. Production is view-only in the Database tab. The owner can also use the CLI to export a connection URL for direct database access. A table the agent adds shows up after the backend is deployed. Every table is listed, including your app’s sign-in tables under auth, and you can edit them in Dev. Deleting someone from auth.user also signs them out everywhere. Columns that hold a secret show as hidden and can’t be read or changed here: session tokens, password hashes, sign-in tokens from Google or Apple, the key that signs logins, and verification codes. The same goes for any column in your own tables whose name ends in password, secret, token, private_key or api_key. There’s no log viewer in the app. If you’re comfortable with a terminal, the newly CLI can help:

• newly db url prints a read-only address for your dev database, which you can open in a database tool.
• newly db url --env prod --role owner exports the production database owner’s connection URL. Only the project owner can export it, and it contains a password.
• newly logs shows recent logs from your dev services.

Logs remain dev-only. See Get your code to install the tool and sign in, and Database backups for manual snapshots, your own scheduler and access during a Newly outage.

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Things to know

• Background jobs: background queue processing isn’t available in Newly Backend.
• Other backend providers: Newly v2 doesn’t connect to Supabase, Firebase or other backend providers. Newly Backend is the backend for Newly v2 apps.
• Email: Newly Backend doesn’t send emails for you, such as password resets. See Sign-in for your app.

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Credits

Hosting Newly Backend doesn’t draw down credits currently. The agent work that builds and changes your backend uses credits like any other agent work. See How credits work. You need a positive credit balance to create a Newly Backend. See Running out of credits.

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