# How the backend works

> This page is about FlutterFlow (the app builder you use by describing your app), not FlutterFlow Studio.

URL: https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/backend

Learn what Backend keeps for your app, which changes you make there and which you ask for in a thread, and what each role sees.

**Backend** shows everything your app keeps: the records in its tables, the people who signed up, its files, and the secrets it uses. You work with your app's backend in **Backend** and in [threads](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/glossary#building-with-the-agent).

Your first version comes with a backend: a table for each kind of record your app shares or keeps across devices, filled with starter data, and sign-in with an email and password. When people can add pictures to a record, its sample pictures are saved in **Backend › Files**, along with the ones people add. To change any of this, ask the agent in a thread.

## What Backend keeps {#what-backend-keeps}

The **Backend** menu lists each part of what your app keeps:

| Part | What it shows | Learn more |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Activity** | Every change pushed to your app's backend, and what each thread is changing in it. | [Backend activity](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/backend-activity) |
| **Data** | One item for each of your app's tables, with the table's records. | [Records](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/records) and [Tables and fields](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/change-tables) |
| **People** | Everyone who has signed up for your app. | [People](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/people) |
| **Files** | Photos and documents that your app has saved. | [Files](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/files) |
| **Secrets** | Private keys that your app uses to reach other services. Their values stay hidden. | [Secrets](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/secrets) |
| **Starter data** | The data that every new thread starts with. | [Thread data](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/thread-data) |
| **Usage** | How much your app uses its backend this month. | [Backend usage](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/backend-usage) |

A dot next to a menu item means that an open thread is changing that part of the backend.

The records in **Backend** are your app's [live data](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/glossary#backend-and-data). Each thread works on its own copy of your starter data, so trying things in a thread never changes your live data. To learn how the copies differ and when starter data reaches your live data, see [Live, thread and starter data](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/data-copies).

## Data here, setup in threads {#how-changes-happen}

Where you make a change depends on whether you're changing your app's data or the backend setup:

- **Your app's data:** in **Backend**, you add and change records and secrets, edit people's details, and upload files. When your app signs people in with an email and password, you can also add people. Saving a record updates your live data immediately.
- **Backend setup:** a table's **Fields**, **People › Sign-in**, and **Files › Rules** show this setup, and you can't edit them in **Backend**. To change them, click **Ask for a change** at the end of the view. A new thread opens with the start of a request in the composer for you to finish and send. The change reaches your app when you push the thread. To learn how, see [Push](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/push).

Only owners and developers can change the backend.

## Backend header {#header}

The **Backend** header shows a status line and a guide button:

- **Status line:** one line that states what open threads are changing in the backend, warns when part of your [backend usage](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/backend-usage#not-your-allowance) reaches 75% of its allowance, or shows when the backend last changed.
- **Guide:** **How the backend works** opens a three-step guide: **Everything your app keeps**, **Change records right here**, and **Setup changes come from threads**.

## What each role sees {#role-chips}

Your role on the app determines what **Backend** shows. Owners and developers see every part of your app's backend. They can edit records, secrets, and people's details, and upload files. Starter data changes only in a thread.

For viewers and billing members, a chip at the top of **Backend** names the limit. Each limit has its own chip:

- **View only:** viewers can't change anything, and the menu omits **People**, **Files**, and **Secrets**.
- **Usage only:** billing members see only **Usage**, without a status line in the header.

To see what the role allows, click the chip.

<Mock name="backend-view-only" alt="The Backend header for a viewer with the View only chip open, saying owners and developers can change your app’s data, sign-in and secrets and that an owner can change your role in Settings › People, and a menu with Activity, Data and its tables, Starter data and Usage." />

For more about roles, see [Team roles](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/roles).

## Not available {#what-it-doesnt-do}

For the data features that FlutterFlow doesn't have, see [Import and export](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/not-available#import-export). For the other features that FlutterFlow doesn't have, see [Not available](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/not-available).

## Next steps {#next}

- [Tables and fields](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/change-tables)
- [Records](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/records)
- [Add sign-in](https://docs.flutterflow.io/ffx/add-sign-in)