Mini apps

A mini app is an application inside Localix: a screen of its own, tools the agent can call, and a guide that tells the agent how to use it. Localix ships none: Localix's own mini apps and plugins are in the Localix marketplace and install from the Store like anyone's. Use this page to see your mini apps, switch them on or off, change their settings, and create one of your own.

Mini apps are not plugins. A Claude Code plugin adds skills, commands, hooks and servers to the agent and is managed in the Store (Plugins) and with /plugin; a mini app is managed here.

Trust boundary: A mini app's backend runs as trusted code in the Localix API process. One you add yourself waits for your yes before its code runs; one the agent builds for you starts on.

What you can do

Outcome	How	Boundary
See your mini apps	`/mini-app list`, or the Store (Mini apps)	The list shows the scope of the current chat's project.
Add one from the Store	The + button in the rail (Open the Store), or setup	Only the recommended apps install without your choice.
Get the recommended apps	Nothing: a new installation installs them in the background	Once per app; one you remove is not added again.
Update all at once	Update all in the line above the message box, or in the Event Center	Only apps a marketplace installed; your own folders are left alone.
Update one	Update on its card in the Store, or wait for the automatic update	Shown when the marketplace offers another version than yours. Only an app from a signed marketplace updates on its own.
Stop an app updating on its own	Its Store page → the ⋯ menu beside Open → untick Update automatically	Offered for an app from a signed marketplace; its page says Signed, Not signed or Signature changed beside the publisher.
See what an app is	Choose its card in the Store	Its page shows screenshots, its README, contents and plan.
Install with its desktop app	Install as app in the menu beside Get in the Store	macOS desktop only, for an app with a screen of its own.
Add a publisher's marketplace	Store → Sources → Add source…, or `/mini-app marketplace add <owner/repo or url>`	Localix reads it first; nothing is added until you choose Add.
See or remove marketplaces	Store → Sources, a shelf's sources menu, or `/mini-app marketplace list`	The Localix marketplace and Localix Community are built in and stay.
Turn one on or off	`/mini-app enable <name>`, `/mini-app disable <name>`, or the row's switch	A per-agent switch is on the agent's Access tab.
Change a mini app's settings	Settings on its row in the Store (Mini apps)	Secret settings are kept in the vault.
Remove one	`/mini-app remove <name>`, or Remove on its card or in Store → Installed	Its data folder stays, so a reinstall finds it.
Have the agent build one	Describe what it should do, with the authoring plugin installed	The plugin is in the Localix marketplace; see Build with the agent.
Pick up edits to its files	`/mini-app reload`	Reloads every mini app and its tools, screens and commands.
Open the list from the rail	Manage mini apps… in the rail's tools menu	Opens the Store (Mini apps).
Run one as its own Mac app	*Install Name* as App** on its tab; see Mac apps	macOS only, for a mini app with a screen of its own.

Changes made with /mini-app take effect on the next turn.

How it works

Mini apps are added in the Store, which opens in its own tab on its Mini apps shelf from the rail's +, from the Store (Mini apps) and from setup. Each app has a tile with Get, which becomes Open once it is installed and Update when a newer version is offered. Choosing a tile opens the app's page: its screenshots, README, what is inside (screen, tools, backend and commands), what would run on this computer and the version on offer.

A check mark means Localix verified the publisher. An app from an unverified publisher asks for your yes first, in a sheet that says what would run and where it comes from. An app built for a newer Localix says so and cannot be installed.

On the macOS desktop, an app with a screen of its own also offers Install as app, which makes it an app with its own window, Dock icon and place in Spotlight once the install has landed. If the desktop app cannot be made, the install stays and the card says why. An installed app's page has Add desktop app or Remove desktop app. See Mac apps.

The Store reads the Localix marketplace, Localix Community and any marketplace you added. Sources lists them under Mini app marketplaces, each with how many apps it offers; Add source… reads an address and adds it only when you choose Add. Choosing a source opens the Store filtered by it. A marketplace is an HTTPS address or a file:// path to its mini-app-marketplace.json, or a GitHub owner/repo whose latest release carries that file. A publisher can link to theirs with localix://ui/work-item/mini-app-store/add-marketplace?url=<address>, which opens the Store with that dialog filled in. An app is <app>@<marketplace>, such as notes@ada; a marketplace's name is unique on your computer, and you run one app of a name. See Mini app marketplaces for the format.

Get on an app replaces what holds its name here: a mini app you built and installed from its folder, or the same name from another marketplace. The data kept under that name stays, and the confirmation says what gives way. A folder you put among your mini apps by hand is its only copy and is never replaced, and apps Localix installs on its own replace nothing.

/mini-app marketplace list shows the marketplaces and how many apps each offers, /mini-app marketplace add <owner/repo or url> reads one and adds it, replying with its publisher and app count or why it was refused, and /mini-app marketplace remove <name or url> removes one you added; the composer offers your marketplaces for it.

Recommended apps

On a new installation, Localix installs the apps the Localix marketplace marks to install by default in the background, without asking; the marketplace repository decides which. They come from that marketplace like any other app, and the Event Center's In progress shows each download; when they are in, one entry says so ("Installed 3 mini apps").

Offline, nothing is installed and Localix tries again later. Each recommended app is installed once: remove one (/mini-app remove <name> or Remove in the Store) and it is not added again, and a folder of your own by the same name is never replaced. An installation that already had mini apps when this arrived gets nothing new.

Setup's Add mini apps slide shows the recommended apps with where each stands, a few more of Localix's own to install in place, and Open the Store last; setup stays open.

Only the Localix marketplace can recommend an app: a marketplace you added cannot, whatever it says.

Installing and updating in the background

An install or an update in progress shows in the Event Center's In progress with its progress, and the bell shows a thin ring while anything runs. Updates on offer appear there too and in one line above the message box: 2 mini app updates — Update all, or 3 updates when plugins have updates too, since the Store offers every kind together. Localix's own update always comes first. The line can be hidden with × until what it offers changes. When an install or update finishes, the Event Center keeps one line: "Installed Name", "Updated 3 mini apps", or "Could not install Name" with the reason and Try again.

A marketplace's app arrives as an archive whose checksum the marketplace pins. An archive that does not match is discarded, and the version you had keeps running. Apps installed from a signed marketplace take its newer versions by themselves, a minute after start and then every six hours.

Each row in the Store (Mini apps) shows the app's version, project scope, category and what it brings: tools, screens, commands, a guide. A row marked awaiting your yes came from outside Localix and has not run yet; runs code means its backend runs while it is on.

Where it lives	What is there
`~/.localix/mini-apps/<name>/`	Your mini apps, in every project, and the marketplaces' ones
`<project>/.localix/mini-apps/<name>/`	A project's own mini apps
`~/.localix/mini-apps-data/<name>/`	What a mini app keeps; it outlives updates and reinstalls

When a project's mini app has the same name as one of yours, yours wins and the project's copy is hidden. To add a mini app by hand, copy its folder (with its .localix-mini-app/mini-app.json) into one of these places and run /mini-app reload.

A mini app's commands appear in the slash menu as /<app>:<command>, with chips and pickers for their arguments. The agent sees one line per enabled mini app and reads the app's guide before it first uses it.

When a mini app fails to load, or reports a problem itself, the Event Center shows it with an action that opens the app's row in the Store (Mini apps). The entry clears once the app works again.

Limits

A mini app's backend is not sandboxed. Turning one on is consent, not isolation.
/mini-app enable and /mini-app disable change whether the app runs; they do not delete it or its data.
The core hosts no marketplace. The Localix marketplace publishes its own with each of its releases; the Store reads the latest one, and its featured and recommended apps come from it.
Which apps were already offered is remembered in ~/.localix/mini-app-recommended.json. Deleting that file does not reinstall anything while you have other mini apps.
Apps from a marketplace you added are always shown as unverified.
A marketplace can take an app back. A taken-back copy stops loading, its Store tile says Taken back, and its page gives the marketplace's reason, with Remove in its menu. Its data stays.