Palmtop quick start

Ten minutes from nothing to an app on your phone that you made by describing it — and handed to someone. Two parts need a little guidance: telling Palmtop who builds, and the build → run → change loop. Everything else is a tap.

1 · Get Palmtop on your phone

Three ways in, and they are the same Palmtop. The web app works today; the two store apps are in the last stage before release.

The web app — works today, on any phone

Open priorstates.com/palmtop/webapp in your phone's browser, then add it to your Home Screen — that copy is the real Palmtop: its storage is permanent, it works offline, and circles and shares land there.

Open Palmtop from the Home Screen from now on. A plain browser tab keeps its own separate storage — that is why an invite opened in a tab tells you to send it to the Home-Screen Palmtop.

Android — download, today

Download Palmtop 1.0.1 (3.8 MB) on the phone and open it; Android asks once to allow installs from your browser. It is the same app Google Play will carry, signed with the app's Play key, so when the Play listing opens the store updates it like any other app. SHA-256 in Palmtop-1.0.1.apk.sha256.txt.

iPhone — TestFlight, today

You can install it now through Apple's TestFlight: join the beta on the phone itself — install TestFlight when it asks, then Palmtop. It is 1.0.1, the same as the web app above, in a container that adds Palmtop to your share sheet. The App Store version is still with Apple; when it lands, the beta becomes the store app.

The store apps add the one thing a web app cannot have: Palmtop in your phone's share sheet, so an app or an invite someone sends you opens straight in it instead of in a browser tab.

Each copy of Palmtop keeps its own storage — a Home-Screen web app and a store app are two separate Palmtops on the same phone, and neither can see the other's apps. To move across, tap Settings→Back up everything in the old one and Restore… in the new one. Your AI key and the pairing with your computer are deliberately left out of a backup file, because that file travels — set those again in the new copy (a minute, step 2).

2 · Set up the AI — who builds

Palmtop does not come with an AI inside; you bring one. Open Settings→Who builds and pick one of the two. You can switch later; both keep your apps on the phone.

A · Gemini on this phone — the quick way

  1. On the phone, get a free key at aistudio.google.com/apikey (a Google account is all it needs).
  2. Back in Palmtop: Settings→Gemini on this phone, paste the key, tap Save, then Test.
  3. Leave the model on Flash-Lite (recommended): the free tier allows it many more requests per minute than the full Flash models, and a build is 5–10 requests in a row.

The key stays on this phone; requests go from the phone straight to Google.

B · Claude Code on my computer — stronger builds, apps kept in git

  1. On the computer where Claude Code is installed and signed in, install Palmtop Hub — macOS, Windows or Linux — and open it.
  2. Press Start, then Pair a phone: it shows a QR code. Scan it with the phone's camera (it opens in Palmtop), or copy the link into Settings→Claude Code on my computer.
  3. Tap Check connection. Away from home the phone reaches the hub through an encrypted relay that cannot read the traffic. The hub keeps that computer awake while it runs; press Stop when you are done.

Your apps are committed to a git repository on the computer; Push to git / Pull from git in Settings move them between devices.

The Build tab tells you which brain is active in a line under the transcript (“Building with Gemini on this phone” or “Building with the Claude Code on your computer”). If it says no AI is configured yet, come back here.

3 · Build your first app

  1. Open the Build tab. The chips along the top are conversations: General, + New, and one per app you have.
  2. Tap + New and describe the app in a sentence or two — say what it is for and what it should show:
    • “An order form for this week's vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs with prices; quantity per line, a total, the customer's name, a Send button.”
    • “A packing checklist for a weekend trip, grouped by clothes, toiletries, documents; tick items off.”
    • “A poll for Friday dinner with four options; everyone votes once and sees the totals.”
  3. Send ↑ and watch the transcript: the AI plans, writes the files, and says done (with the number of turns it took). A build takes from under a minute to a few minutes.
  4. Go to the Apps tab — the new tile is there. Tap it.

What works best: one app per request, concrete nouns (the items, the fields, the buttons), and the purpose (“for the farm's weekly orders”). You do not need to say how — no technology, no layout instructions.

4 · Run it, change it

Tapping a tile opens the app full-screen. The bar at the top has ‹ back, ↻ reload, ⤴ share, and 🐞 — show the builder, which jumps to the Build tab on this app's conversation with “Something looks wrong:” ready to finish. That is the loop:

  1. Use the app. Notice what is missing or wrong.
  2. 🐞 (or Build → the app's chip) and say it: “add a delivery date picker under the notes”, “the total should include the 5 % fee”, “make the buttons bigger”.
  3. done → open the app again. Its data (the list you had filled in) stays.

Long-press a tile for its sheet: Open, Edit with AI, Share, Inbox (for apps that collect replies), Delete. Arrange on the Apps tab lets you drag tiles and make groups (Mine, Family, …).

5 · Start from a template

Apps→Gallery has five ready-made apps: an order form, a sign-up sheet, a poll, a checklist and an expense splitter. Tap Install, open it, then make it yours the same way — Build → its chip → “rename the items to …”. A template is often a faster first step than describing from scratch.

6 · Share it

To one person

In the app's sheet or its top bar, Share → Share link. The app is encrypted on your phone; only the link holds the key. Send it through anything — WeChat, WhatsApp, iMessage, email. They open it in Palmtop and confirm Install. You choose whether your data goes along (for a filled-in list, that is the point). Export file does the same as a file.

To a group — circles

Circles→New circle, then Invite: send the link to your family, class or team. Post an app in the circle with ＋; everyone gets Install, and when you post an update they get Update.

Replies. A form you share (an order form, a sign-up sheet, a poll) sends its answers back to you: long-press its tile → Inbox, where you can export them as a spreadsheet. The whole round trip, both sides — forms that answer back.

If something is off

🌐 Open Palmtop About Palmtop Privacy