# Building FlowFuse applications

Turn an app idea into FlowFuse pieces you can name and say in one sentence.

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**New to FlowFuse? Start with the Foundations →** — what FlowFuse is and its core pieces, the grounding for everything in this guide.

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## Apps

### [App delivery methods](/docs/application-guide/app-delivery-methods/)

- **Whole app** — A complete, versioned project promoted through dev, staging and prod — via snapshots & pipelines.
- **Pieces** — A reusable piece packaged to the Team Library, installed like a shared library — via subflow export.

### [Hardware apps](/docs/application-guide/app-delivery-methods/hardware-apps/)

- **Packaged App** — Sealed product on a Remote Instance, identical on every device.
- **Configurable App** — Same build on a Remote Instance, tuned by a per-site config file that lives on the device.
- **Edge Building Block** — A reusable edge block you wire into your own upstream flows.

### [Software apps](/docs/application-guide/app-delivery-methods/software-apps/)

- **Packaged App** — Headless job on a Hosted or Remote Instance, no screen.
- **Data-Driven App** — User-facing app on a Hosted Instance, backed by data.
- **Shared Building Block** — Reusable UI or logic many Hosted Instances embed.

## Architectures

### [Data plane — how data is handled](/docs/application-guide/data-plane/)

- **Built in — Tables** — Relational records — built into every FlowFuse install, exposed to every instance.
- **Built in — Broker / UNS** — Team Broker — built into every FlowFuse install; publish once, many subscribe.
- **Time-series** — External today — no built-in TSDB; run Timescale/Quest and expose it to the fleet.
- **Bring your own** — Expose any other store or service (SQL, ML, gateway) over Project Link.

### Execution plane — where it runs

- **OT architectures** — Near the equipment — edge with the server in IT or an OT/DMZ, hardware-saving consolidation, and air-gapped sites.
- **IT architectures** — Hosting & governing — on-prem, your cloud per-site, hosting choice at scale, and enterprise governance.
- **IIoT architectures** — The live data backbone — a Unified Namespace where edge publishes once and many subscribe, across every site.

## Examples

- **Worked example** — OEE, end to end — the full chain from edge to broker to cloud to history.

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**Ready to build one?** This guide covers the decisions. [Using FlowFuse](/docs/user/) covers the steps that carry them out — creating instances, running pipelines, registering remote instances.

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