MiniApps: explore a result interactively

A MiniApp is a custom view with controls for exploring data from a completed block. It opens in its own workspace tab: an image explorer, say, shows the image beside a threshold slider and updates a mask as you move it. Your source data stays available — exploring it never reruns the workflow.

Create a MiniApp

  1. Run the block that produces the data you want to explore.
  2. Open MiniApps in the sidebar and choose + New.
  3. Under Data source, pick a completed output of the current project. Workflow, node, and output names distinguish results.
  4. Under Instructions, describe what you want to see and which controls you need — “Show the image with a threshold slider. Update the mask as I adjust the threshold.” Choose the provider and permission mode, then submit.

SciStudio opens an AI authoring session that builds the MiniApp. The AI should test it on the selected data and report what it verified; creation alone is not proof that every control works.

Answer the AI's questions

Before building, the AI usually shows a short questionnaire in the MiniApp tab: what to show, how to colour it, which values to start from. Every question is optional — pick a suggestion, type your own, choose Decide for me, or skip — then press Submit. The latest submit counts.

If the AI is working in a SciStudio terminal tab, it starts building on submit. Otherwise the page says your answers are saved: go back to your AI chat and tell it you have submitted.

Open and reuse

  • Click a MiniApp in the sidebar once to open it. If asked Open on which data?, choose a compatible completed output. Reuse the same MiniApp on another output instead of rebuilding its interface.
  • Switching tabs keeps the MiniApp and its controls alive. Closing its tab ends the session; reopening may reset controls and computed results. Saved exports are separate.
  • Reload at the top of the MiniApps section rescans for added, changed, or removed MiniApps. Registry changes update the lists automatically.

Restart and stop

The toolbar shows whether the MiniApp is starting, running, stopped, or has an error. Restart starts its Python process again (this can reset transient values); Stop ends it. On an error, share the visible message and the action that caused it with the AI. The toolbar shows useful state, not memory or process metrics.

Convert to an interactive workflow block

Choose Convert in the MiniApp toolbar, then Convert to interactive block. This creates a block that can run this interface as an interactive workflow step and send results to subsequent blocks. The original MiniApp stays available.

  • Under Outputs, give each result a Name and choose its Data type. Use Add output for more.
  • Optional Instructions can set behavior — “Use the current threshold as the default.” A slider's on-screen value does not automatically become a Python default, so state it here and have the block tested with it.

What's next