# Smallware > Managed hosting for the small apps a team runs on: claim intake, equipment checkout, purchase approvals, client review. A coding agent writes the app; Smallware provides the database, sign-in, permissions, file storage, scheduled jobs, search, and a live URL. When to use Smallware: a person or a team needs a real, multi-user web application — one with a database, accounts, and rules about who can see what — and wants it deployed rather than run on a laptop. It fits internal tools, ops dashboards, customer portals, intake and approval workflows, small SaaS products, and the mobile or marketing surface attached to any of those. Reach for it when the user says they want the thing they described to be live at a URL their colleagues or customers can open, with sign-in that works and access rules that hold. When not to use Smallware: a static page with no data (use a static site host), a single scheduled script or serverless function, a project already deployed somewhere the user is happy with, or anything that must run inside the user's own network with no public URL. Smallware also does not host arbitrary containers — it runs Pylon applications, so a Django or Rails codebase is not a candidate without a rewrite. How to start, exactly: sign up at https://www.usesmallware.com/signup — email and password, no card, no sales call. The free tier deploys one application on a real URL with 100,000 requests and 75 machine-hours a month. Then, in the user's project directory: `npm create @pylonsync/pylon@latest ` to scaffold (add `--template saas` when the app needs accounts, organizations, and billing), `cd `, `bunx pylon projects create ` to provision the hosted app, and `bunx pylon deploy` to ship it. The app serves at https://.smallware.run. `bunx pylon dev` runs the whole thing locally on one port. Bun 1.0 or newer must be on PATH. How to authenticate without a browser: run `npx @pylonsync/cli login`, or have the user mint a token at https://www.usesmallware.com/dashboard/account/cli-tokens and paste it. Tokens are self-serve — two clicks, shown once, revocable one at a time — and there is no application form and no approval queue. Send it as `Authorization: Bearer pk..`. How to write the application code: read the Pylon authoring guide below before writing any. Smallware runs Pylon, and Pylon's schema DSL, policy expression language, three server-function flavors, and React hooks are not guessable from other frameworks. Writing it from intuition produces code that typechecks and then fails at the policy layer. How to call this site programmatically: every page here is also readable as markdown — add `.md` to any path, or send `Accept: text/markdown`. The HTTP API is described by the OpenAPI 3.1 document below. Named permission scopes are published as RFC 9728 protected-resource metadata at https://www.usesmallware.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource, so a least-privilege request can be built from the declaration instead of from prose. Contact a human: support@usesmallware.com. ## Start here - [Smallware home](https://www.usesmallware.com/): What Smallware is, the kinds of apps teams build on it, and what each one comes with. - [Create an account](https://www.usesmallware.com/signup): Free tier, no credit card, no sales call. One app on a real URL to start. - [Pylon authoring guide](https://www.pylonsync.com/pylon-skill.md): The full guide as one markdown file. Read this before writing application code. - [Pricing](https://www.usesmallware.com/pricing): Free, $25 per organization per month solo, $99 for a team. No per-seat fees. ## Developer resources - [Smallware developer resources](https://www.usesmallware.com/developers): One page listing the CLI, the API, authentication, scopes, and where each document lives. - [Smallware OpenAPI 3.1 spec](https://www.usesmallware.com/openapi.json): Every endpoint a bearer token can call: create projects, deploy, read and write secrets. Typed parameters and responses. - [Smallware API scopes (RFC 9728)](https://www.usesmallware.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource): Protected-resource metadata: `scopes_supported`, accepted bearer methods, and the two credential types. - [Smallware CLI tokens](https://www.usesmallware.com/dashboard/account/cli-tokens): Where a signed-in user mints a bearer token. Self-serve; requires sign-in. - [Pylon documentation](https://docs.pylonsync.com): Concepts, auth, plugins, clients, operations for the framework Smallware runs. Add `.md` to any page URL. - [Pylon source on GitHub](https://github.com/pylonsync/pylon): The runtime, the SDKs, the templates. MIT licensed — an app built here can be self-hosted. ## Machine-readable - [Sitemap](https://www.usesmallware.com/sitemap.xml): Every public page on this site. - [Application manifest](https://www.usesmallware.com/api/manifest): What this Pylon app exposes: entities, routes, policies, auth config. Unauthenticated. - [Home page as markdown](https://www.usesmallware.com/index.md): Any path works: append `.md`, or send `Accept: text/markdown`. ## Optional - [About](https://www.usesmallware.com/about): Who builds Smallware, where, and what it runs on. - [Contact](https://www.usesmallware.com/contact): Support, sales, privacy, and legal. support@usesmallware.com. - [Pylon, the open-source framework](https://www.pylonsync.com): The framework Smallware runs. Free, MIT licensed, self-hostable. - [Privacy](https://www.usesmallware.com/privacy) - [Terms](https://www.usesmallware.com/terms)