Retool in Production

"Retool in Production: Low-Code Apps, Workflows, and AI for Business Operations"

Retool can turn internal operations into software quickly-but speed without architecture, governance, and reliability becomes operational debt. This book is written for experienced builders, platform engineers, technical operators, and engineering-minded business teams who need more than a getting-started guide. It treats Retool as a serious production platform and shows how to design systems that survive scale, audits, organizational complexity, and real business dependence.

Across the book, readers learn how to structure resources and queries, build robust apps in the new app builder, automate repeatable processes with workflows, and introduce AI and agents without compromising control. It covers SQL safety, permission design, resource access enforcement, observability, deployment choices, release discipline, and self-hosted upgrade strategy. The outcome is not just fluency with features, but the ability to make sound architectural decisions and operate Retool as dependable internal infrastructure.

The approach is practical and production-first, assuming familiarity with modern software systems, APIs, databases, and operational tooling. Rather than simplifying the platform, the book focuses on boundaries, trade-offs, and failure modes-the details advanced readers need when Retool moves from experimentation into mission-critical business operations.