Creating and Managing Apps

Last modified: November 5, 2026

Introduction

Refer to the following sections for information about creating, managing, and deploying your applications.

Installing Studio Pro

Before you can create your first app, you must first install Mendix Studio Pro. Not all Studio Pro versions published by Mendix on the Mendix Marketplace are compatible with Private Mendix Platform. Private Mendix Platform offers predefined compatible versions of Studio Pro, which are tied to supported Runtime versions and reusable components (such as Starter App templates).

  1. Log in to Private Mendix Platform.

  2. On the home page, click Download Studio Pro

  3. Download the Studio Pro release, the patch, and optionally the dependency package.

  4. If required, install the tools included in the dependency package.

  5. Install Studio Pro. For more information, see Installing Studio Pro.

  6. Extract the Studio Pro patch file to the modeler directory located in the Studio Pro installation directory, and let it patch the files inside.

  7. Launch Studio Pro and log in to it with the same credentials as for Private Mendix Platform.

Creating a New App

To create a new app, perform the following steps:

  1. Log in to Private Mendix Platform.

  2. If you have not already configured an access token for a GitLab, GitHub, AzureDevOps, or Bitbucket repository, click the user icon in the top right corner of the screen, and then click Manage My Account > Service Credentials.

    For more information, see Service Credentials.

  3. On the home page, click Create App.

  4. Start the creation of your app by selecting a template.

    For step-by-step examples and guides for new Mendix developers, refer to the following pages:

Managing Your App

As a user of Private Mendix Platform, you can view the apps that you own directly on the home page of Private Mendix Platform. This includes the apps that you created, as well as the apps that are shared with your user group. To view more details about an app, click on its tile.

In the General section, you can you can quickly perform a number of actions:

  • Invite users to work on the app
  • View the Git revisions per branch for the app
  • Assign the app to a new owner or group
  • Archive the app, provided you are the only team member. You will be warned of the consequences and asked for confirmation before the app is archived.
  • Delete the app, provided you are the only team member. You will be warned of the consequences and asked for confirmation before the app is deleted.

Deploying Your App

In the Deploy section, you can configure the environment to which your app will be deployed.

  1. Optional: In the Environments tab, create a new deployment package.

  2. Click Create Environment.

  3. Select your deployment package that you want to deploy to this environment, and then click Next.

  4. Specify the following details about the environment:

    • Internal Name - An automatically generated internal name for the environment. The environment name can only contain lowercase letters and numbers.
    • Display Name - The name that will be displayed in the UI. You can have several environments for your app, for example test, acceptance, and production.
    • Cluster and Namespace - An existing cluster and its namespace.

  5. Click Next.

  6. After the environment is created, you can use the Details menu to perform additional actions such as deleting the environment, or starting and stopping the app.

Deployment Purpose and DTAP Mode

When creating a new environment to deploy, you can select the environment purpose, which can be Development, Test, Acceptance, or Production. For the deployed Mendix App, this purpose corresponds to the runtime's dtapMode, which affects security and licensing. For example, whether demo users are available after deployment, whether production security is enabled, or whether the environment requests a license from the license manager service. Once the environment has been created, the environment purpose cannot be changed.

On Private Mendix Platform, environments with the Development and Test purpose set the dtapMode to D (for Development), while Acceptance and Production environments operate in dtapMode P (for Production). This association cannot be changed. Please select the appropriate environment purpose when you're creating a new environment.

Runtime Behavior in Development Mode

When the dtapMode is set to D (Development), the Mendix Runtime behaves differently than it does in Production mode. The following changes apply:

  • The admin password strength is not verified.
  • The admin password can be a single character (for example, 1).
  • Project security can be disabled in the model.
  • Some log lines are printed at the info level instead of the debug level.
  • Demo users are created if enabled.
  • During shutdown, task queues stop after a shorter grace period.
  • Enables additional websockets.

Do not use Development mode for production environments. Use Production mode (P) for environments that require the full security and runtime behavior.