As a business intelligence user, this probably sounds familiar: Most dashboards only provide you with a standardized canvas and a fixed library of charts, and the “analysis” consists of a CSV export that takes you to another system. Or sometimes it's designing the dashboard that’s the challenge: You can picture the executive briefing, the customer-facing portal, or the interactive explainer that you want, but can’t assemble it out of the available grid tiles.
Either way, the solution has always been to build a custom application. The advent of AI has sped up the process — a working prototype now takes an afternoon — but the excitement of that first demo fades fast. Without access to governed data, row-level security, an infrastructure owner, or a clear path through security review, a tool written by an LLM is simply a prototype that can never go to production.
Today, to bridge this gap, we are announcing Looker Data Apps (in preview) — pairing the speed of agent-generated applications with the governance, security, and trust of your existing Looker governance framework. Describe what you need in plain language, and the agent builds it as a real, production-grade application hosted natively inside Looker!
A data app is a bespoke, interactive web application generated by an AI agent and hosted natively within Looker. While dashboards provide top-down visibility, data apps serve as an active system of action designed around a specific operational workflow. A data app:
Goes beyond standard grid tiles with pixel-perfect, bespoke layouts configured for a specific operational role or job-to-be-done.
Enables business users to input parameters, test scenarios, run live simulations, and update underlying records.
Connects end-to-end business processes by connecting data analysis to business execution tasks like updating source records or dispatching events to tools like Salesforce and Jira.
Data apps do not replace dashboards; they expand the boundaries of what you can build on top of your existing dashboards and semantic layer.
Dashboards excel at aggregate visibility and passive reporting. Data apps handle active execution, letting users modify parameters and trigger downstream business tasks.
Dashboards provide consistency using standardized chart libraries. Data apps deliver broad flexibility, unlocking custom web components and specialized interactions.
Data apps are grounded in governed data to ensure accuracy. Whether users are reviewing a KPI dashboard or adjusting budgets in a data app, all logic is governed centrally with the LookML semantic layer to eliminate metric discrepancies and hallucinations.
We designed Looker Data Apps for demanding, governed enterprises.
Every measure is grounded in the semantic layer. Every app you build directly inherits your existing semantic models, row-level security, and access controls. Calculations stay consistent across the enterprise, and built-in query inspection lets teams audit every line of generated SQL to eliminate metric hallucinations.
Zero-code by default. Deploy agent-generated React applications directly inside Looker with no code. Or users can use LLMs like Claude Code and Antigravity CLI to build interactive apps and deploy them as data apps in minutes.
No runtime token costs. LLM tokens are only consumed when you’re designing or generating the app. After that, every end-user interaction runs on native Looker APIs and models. Put a data app in front of 50 people or 5,000 and the marginal cost doesn't change.
As easy as embedding a dashboard. You can deploy your data apps into external portals using the same workflows you use to embed a dashboard. No new pipelines, no custom application code, no second permission models.
The days of having to choose between basic dashboards and investing valuable engineering time to build bespoke systems are coming to an end. Instead of letting prototypes stall in sandboxes due to compliance and security barriers, Looker Data Apps allows teams to deploy governed, production-grade tools in minutes.
Looker Data Apps are now in preview. Get started today.