Base Captain docs
Guides for everyone who uses and builds a base on Base Captain, task by task. No developer knowledge needed.
Start
- Get started with Base Captain Try an app with no sign-up, sign up, create your base from an app, take the tour, find your way around, add your first item and use the keyboard shortcuts.
- Sign in, join a base and switch bases Sign in to all your bases in one place, join a base from an invitation, sign in with a mailed code when you forget your password, and switch bases.
- Make a temporary base with no sign-up Make a base with no sign-up and change it for 24 hours, then sign up and keep it as your own, with all you put in it.
- Install your base on a phone or computer Install your base on your phone or computer, with its own icon, its own push notifications and its Inbox’s count on its icon.
- Use the keyboard shortcuts Open pages, move in a list and open, edit and create items in your base without the mouse, and see when the keys do nothing.
Tables and views
- Make a table and its fields Make a table in Builder and add its fields: what is required or unique, each field’s width and default, and choices that follow the item.
- Choose field types, lookups and formulas Pick a field’s type, show amounts in a currency and time in hours and minutes, and add auto-numbers, rollups, lookups and computed fields.
- Link tables with references and child rows Point an item at items of another table, offer only the choices that fit, edit child rows inside a form, and keep one contact as a customer and a supplier.
- Stop wrong data: limits, checks and guards Stop double bookings, overselling and wrong values with limits and checks, warn without stopping, and lock an item when a rule says so.
- Make buttons and change the base's code Make a button that does several steps with one click, with no code, and read, change and try the base’s code where it sits.
- Find items and save views Find items with search and filters, save a view with its filters and sort, give views to everyone, and show each person their own items.
- Show a list as a board, calendar or chart Show a list as a board, a calendar with an hour grid, a timeline from start day to end day, a chart, or numbers in tiles above it.
- Edit in a list, group rows and see totals Group a grid’s rows, drag items into your order, see totals, change a value in the grid, change or delete many items at once, and see changes live.
- Work on an item: comments, history and AI Open an item’s page with its related lists, comments and history, put in a saved reply with /, write with AI, and restore a deleted item.
Build
- Make a public form anyone can fill in Make a public form that anyone fills in at your base’s address, with choices, order lines, files and a payment, then share its link or embed it on your site.
- Print an item, save a PDF, send it by link Print an item or a view, or save it as a PDF, with only the fields each person may see, and send it to a customer by a private or a lasting link.
- Make a print template for invoices and slips Add a print template to a table and write its page in HTML, with the item’s fields between double braces: an invoice, a packing slip or a price list.
- Start from an app and add or remove modules Start your base from an app and the add-ons you tick, add or remove a module later, delete the sample data, and save your base as an app of your own.
- Upgrade a module and keep your changes When a module gets a new release, your base upgrades by itself and keeps your changes, or waits for you to choose. Undo an upgrade it took by itself.
- Import and export CSV and Excel files Import a CSV or Excel file into a list or update items from it, export a list or all your base’s data, and build a base from a spreadsheet.
Work
- Move items from step to step with workflows Make a workflow move an item from step to step by itself: start and stop it, change it as a table, text or canvas, add approvals and set its brakes.
- Give a workflow step to a person or customer Make a workflow step wait in a person’s Inbox, or for a customer who answers by a private link to the printed item, and pick outcomes for many items.
- See your work and notifications in the Inbox See everything open for you in the Inbox: the work that needs you, the open mail and the notifications, why an item needs you, and when it emails you.
- Send an email or act when an item changes Send an email, call another service, set a field, run an agent or start a workflow when an item changes, and post to a chat or send a text message.
- Post to a team chat or send a text message Post each new order to Slack, Teams or Telegram, or text a customer, with an automation’s webhook and a secret, with no code.
- Run an automation on a schedule Run an automation by the clock, every day, week, month or year at a time you choose, such as a reminder to customers of unpaid orders.
- Make items from webhooks and incoming mail Make items from webhooks and mail that come in, let Triage decide what happens next and who gets a mail, and get answers on an item by mail.
- Check signed webhooks and filter calls Refuse a webhook call that does not come from its service by checking its signature, and take only the calls you want, such as GitHub’s new issues.
- Get and answer mail in a shared inbox Get your base’s mail in the Inbox, give each mail an owner or give it back, answer it with files, mark it Done and turn it into an item.
- Choose who sees mail and how your base mails Choose who sees Mail, release the mail that fails the checks, name the emails your base sends, handle automatic mail and use Mail with an API token.
- Chat with your team: channels and messages Talk with your team in channels, direct messages and group chats: write, react, reply in threads, pin, bookmark, and choose your notifications.
- Run a channel: users, moderators and bans Make and run a channel: its users, managers and moderators, who posts, bans, archives and old messages, and bring your history from Slack.
- Use agents, webhooks and the API in Chat Ask an agent in a channel, let another service post with an incoming webhook, and use Chat with an API token or an AI client.
- Keep your base’s files in folders Keep your base’s files in folders: upload, move, tag and find them, search inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, import a zip, and let agents read them.
- Take payments with Stripe or PayPal Add Stripe or PayPal once, let a table take payments once or each month or year, ask a customer to pay, and see and refund each payment.
AI
- Ask the assistant and review its changes Ask for a change in plain words, see it on a card before it happens, undo it or go back to an earlier version, and find your earlier conversations.
- Get work done and build with the assistant Ask the assistant to do your work, describe your business for its first build, build from a photo or a PDF, add buttons and behaviour, and use MCP servers.
- AI in your plan, and keeping data from AI See the AI your plan includes and its fair-use limits, your base’s storage and what it did, and keep item data from the assistant, agents and AI clients.
- Make AI agents that work in your base Make an agent with its instructions and roles, pick where it runs, try it before you save it, chat with it, and let it work by itself from an automation.
- Pick an agent's model, voice and skills Run an agent on your own Claude API, OpenAI API or Claude Code key, try another model on its past runs, and give it a picture, a voice and skills.
- Let an agent search the web and read files Let an agent read an item’s photos and PDFs, search the web, ask about web pages and take their pictures, and save files, or keep it from the web.
- See an agent's runs and why they fell short See what stops an agent from running, everything a run did and why a run fell short, ask the assistant why, and find an agent’s changes in an item’s history.
- Run agents on your own computer: machines Run agents on your own computer: install the daemon, pair the machine, add coding tools, put agents on it, share the work between machines in a pool, lend its browser to your agents, and revoke it.
- Connect MCP servers to your base Give agents and the assistant more tools, such as Notion, Linear or Stripe: add an MCP server, sign in or paste its key, and pick the tools each agent may use.
Connect
- Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code Connect Claude, Claude Code or ChatGPT to Base Captain once, then make your base from a chat, change it there and open it with a link.
- What your AI can do in Base Captain Ask your AI to find an app, make a base, and open and work in your bases as you, with prompts to try and what it cannot do.
- Use your base from a calendar or a script Follow a calendar view in your own calendar app with a private link, and let a script of your own use your base with an API token.
- Send webhooks to another service Send each new or changed item to another service, sign the calls, check the signature in its code, and see each call and its tries.
Users and your base
- Invite users, owners and customers Invite users and give them roles, change or remove them, make a user an owner, and open a portal where your customers sign in or sign up.
- Give users roles and see who may do what Give a user one or more roles, let a role include others, see who may do what on the Roles page, make a role, and see the base as a user sees it.
- Choose what each role sees and changes Choose the rows each role sees and changes, lock fields with field rules, link each user to their records, and keep a new table private.
- Create, copy, export and delete a base Create a base, copy it, give it its name, logo and settings, see who its owners, admins and customers are, export its data and delete it.
- Choose a plan, pay and add storage See what the Free and Pro plans hold, add a payment method, upgrade to Pro, add storage, read the bill and the taxes, cancel, and see what happens past a limit.
- Set preferences, password and security Set your preferences in every base, your password, two-factor sign-in, sessions and API tokens, the base’s secrets, its history and the security log.