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Data apps are an enterprise feature. You’ll need a valid LIGHTDASH_LICENSE_KEY set on your instance before any of the configuration below takes effect.
Data apps are AI-generated React code, produced inside an isolated E2B sandbox, built with Vite, and stored in an S3-compatible bucket. To enable the feature on a self-hosted Lightdash instance you need to bring your own E2B and Anthropic API keys, and point Lightdash at a bucket it can write to.

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Prerequisites

  • Enterprise license - LIGHTDASH_LICENSE_KEY must be set on your instance.
  • S3-compatible storage - a bucket Lightdash can write to for app source and built artifacts. If your instance isn’t already using S3, set that up first.
  • An E2B account - sign up at e2b.dev and create an API key. E2B is the sandbox provider we use to build the apps.
  • An Anthropic API key - sign up at console.anthropic.com and create an API key. Claude is the model that writes the React code inside the sandbox.

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Configuration

Add the following environment variables to your Lightdash deployment: Restart the backend. The “Data apps” entry will appear in the New menu for users with the appropriate permission scope.

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Optional configuration

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Costs

Self-hosting Data apps means you pay E2B and Anthropic directly:
  • E2B bills per sandbox-second. A typical build runs for 1–15 minutes; sandboxes are paused between iterations and resumed on follow-up prompts.
  • Anthropic bills per token. Each generation sends the project’s dbt catalog and the user’s prompt to Claude, plus any attached charts, dashboards, or images.
Both providers expose usage dashboards. We recommend setting spend limits on both before rolling the feature out to your users.

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Permissions

Data apps follow the same space-based permission model as charts and dashboards. The relevant scopes (view:DataApp, create:DataApp, manage:DataApp) are bundled into the default system roles - but on enterprise instances using custom roles, you’ll need to grant them explicitly. See Custom roles for details.

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Troubleshooting

The “Data apps” entry doesn’t appear in the New menu. Check that APPS_RUNTIME_ENABLED=true, LIGHTDASH_LICENSE_KEY is set, and the signed-in user has the create:DataApp scope. Builds fail immediately with a sandbox creation error. Verify E2B_API_KEY is valid and that your E2B account has access to the lightdash/lightdash-data-app template. If you’ve overridden E2B_TEMPLATE_TAG, double-check the tag exists. Builds fail mid-generation with an Anthropic error. Check your Anthropic account usage limits and confirm ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is valid. Long-running generations can hit rate limits on lower-tier Anthropic plans.