Improved custom apps: opening new possibilities in your CMS

We’re excited to introduce an evolution to the custom app experience in Kontent.ai: custom apps are now context-aware. They bring intelligent assistance and specialized tools that understand exactly what you're working on right into the content editing experience. 

Why you should build with custom apps

Unlike environment-level custom apps that operate across your entire project, our custom apps now work with the specific content item you're editing. They appear directly in the content item you’re working on, giving you instant access to AI assistants, specialized editing tools, and analytics, all with full awareness of your current content context.

This new capability opens up two major use cases that can transform how you work with content: enabling AI-powered assistance with your own AI stack, and streamlining your content model by reducing the need for custom elements.

This focused approach enables two powerful use cases:

Bring your own AI

For organizations with established AI strategies, custom apps let you integrate your own AI stack (whether that's OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, custom models, or specialized AI tools) directly into your content workflow. Your AI agents can access the full context of the content item being edited: field values, workflow state, validation errors, relationships to other content, and permission constraints.

This means your AI assistant truly understands what your editors are working on and can provide intelligent, contextual help:

• Explaining why certain fields are locked or why validation is failing
• Suggesting content improvements based on your specific guidelines and brand voice
• Understanding content relationships and warning about potential impacts
• Helping editors navigate complex workflow requirements
• Providing field-level guidance without leaving the editing interface

By bringing your own AI, you maintain control over your AI strategy while leveraging Kontent.ai's content context to make your AI agents more effective and your editors more productive.

Reducing custom element overhead

For developers and architects, custom apps solve a persistent challenge: providing custom functionality without cluttering your content model with custom elements.

Custom elements are powerful, but they come with overhead. Each custom element must be:

• Added to every content type where you need the functionality
• Maintained across multiple content types when updates are needed
• Factored into your API calls, increasing response payload size
• Documented and explained to content editors

Custom apps offer an alternative. Instead of embedding custom functionality into your content model structure, you provide it through an app that can work across any content item. Need a specialized text analyzer? A compliance checker? A content performance optimizer? Build it once as a custom app, and it's available wherever editors need it, all without modifying your content model or impacting API performance.

See custom apps in action

To see the improved custom apps in practice and hear directly from Jiri Lojda, one of the developers behind the feature, watch our video walkthrough:

What can you do with custom apps?

The possibilities range from AI-powered assistance to specialized editing tools:

AI-powered editing assistance

• Contextual help: Editors can ask questions about specific fields, validation requirements, or workflow states and get answers that understand their exact situation
• Content optimization: AI agents analyze the current content item and suggest improvements based on your guidelines, SEO requirements, or brand standards
• Error resolution: When validation fails, editors can get intelligent explanations and suggestions for fixing issues
• Relationship awareness: AI assistants understand how the current item connects to other content and can warn about potential impacts of changes

Specialized editing tools

• Bulk field updates: Apply changes to common fields (tags, categories, expiration dates) across selected content items
• Content quality checks: Identify missing text, outdated information, or guideline violations within the current item
• Analytics integration: View performance metrics for the current content item without leaving the editor
• Compliance verification: Check content against regulatory requirements or brand guidelines in real-time

Developer and architect tools

• Content model analysis: Examine how the current content type is used and related to other types
• SEO validation: Check for common SEO issues like missing metadata or incorrect heading structure
• Testing and debugging: Inspect content item data structures and relationships during development

How custom apps work

Custom apps integrate seamlessly into your Kontent.ai editing experience:

The editing interface

When you're editing a content item, a floating button appears in the bottom right corner of your screen. Clicking this button opens a vertical menu listing all available custom apps configured for your environment. Select the app you want to use, and it opens in a dialog window right on the page.

The dialog stays accessible while you work, allowing you to interact with the app while still viewing and editing your content. You can open the app, get assistance or run a tool, and immediately apply changes to your content item, all without navigating away from the editor.

Context access and capabilities

Custom apps now have direct access to:

• The current content item's field values and structure
• Workflow state and available transitions
• Validation status and error messages
• Content relationships (linked items, references)
• User permissions and constraints

Apps can also modify the content item directly, making changes that appear immediately in the editor. This enables powerful workflows where AI agents or specialized tools can help editors by automatically fixing issues, optimizing content, or applying bulk changes.

Scope and boundaries

Unlike environment-level custom apps, improved custom apps are deliberately scoped to the current editing context. They don't have access to your entire project's content, which provides several benefits:

• Faster performance with focused context
• Clearer security boundaries
• More predictable behavior
• Reduced API consumption

This focused scope makes custom apps perfect for tasks that should work on individual content items while maintaining the broader environment-level custom apps for project-wide operations.

Getting started with custom apps

Setting up custom apps follows a straightforward process:

1. Develop your app: Build your custom app using modern web technologies. Use the Custom App SDK to access the content item context and the Management API to read and modify content.
2. Deploy your app: Host your app on any web server or platform (Netlify, Vercel, AWS, etc.). Ensure it's accessible via HTTPS.
3. Configure in Kontent.ai: Add your app under Environment Settings > Custom Apps. Mark it as a contextual app and configure any necessary API keys or parameters.
4. Access from content items: Once configured, your custom app appears in the floating button menu when editors are working on content items.

The Custom App SDK provides the necessary methods to access content item context, including field values, workflow state, and user permissions. Your app can then use this context to provide intelligent assistance or specialized functionality.

What’s next for custom apps?

We're starting with support for content item editing, but the potential extends much further. Future iterations may bring improved custom apps to:

• Content item listings (for bulk operations across multiple items)
• Content type management (for architecture and governance tools)
• Other areas of the Kontent.ai interface where contextual intelligence adds value

As the Agentic CMS vision continues to evolve, custom apps will play an increasingly important role in making content operations more intelligent, efficient, and accessible.

Start building and share your work

Custom apps represent a new way to bring intelligence and specialized functionality directly into your content workflow. Whether you're building AI-powered assistants or creating tools to streamline editing tasks, custom apps offer the flexibility and power to transform how your team works with content.

For more information about building custom apps and how they can enhance your Kontent.ai experience, check out our documentation on custom apps.

We're excited to see what you build with custom apps. Share your experiences and innovative use cases with the Kontent.ai community. Your insights help shape the future of content management.