Create an App Catalog

An App Catalog defines which workloads make up your application — it's the blueprint Lapdev uses to create development environments.

This guide walks you through creating an App Catalog from your connected cluster.

To understand why App Catalogs exist and how they fit into Lapdev, read App Catalog first.

Prerequisites

Before creating an App Catalog, make sure:

• You've connected at least one Kubernetes cluster to Lapdev.

• The cluster you'll read workloads from shows as Active in the Lapdev dashboard.

• The cluster contains the workloads you want to include (e.g. your production or staging workloads).

Don't have a cluster connected yet? See Connect Your Kubernetes Cluster.

💡 The same cluster can be used later for both reading workloads and deploying environments.

Open the Cluster in the Dashboard

1. Go to https://app.lap.dev.

2. Navigate to the Clusters tab.

3. Click the cluster you want to use as the source.

Select Workloads

Once inside the cluster details page:

1. Lapdev lists all workloads (Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, etc.) discovered in the cluster.

2. You can:

   • Filter workloads by Namespace or Workload Type.

   • Optionally check Show System Workloads to include system components.

3. Select the workloads that make up your app.

Create the App Catalog

1. After selecting workloads, click Create App Catalog.

2. In the dialog:

   • Enter a Name for the catalog (e.g. checkout-service, internal-tools).

   • Optionally add a Description.

   • Review the list of selected workloads.

3. Click Create.

Lapdev will create the catalog and register it in the App Catalogs section of your dashboard.

💡 Don’t worry if you missed something — you can edit the catalog later to add or remove workloads.

Verify Your App Catalog

1. Go to the App Catalogs tab in the dashboard.

2. You’ll see your newly created catalog listed with:

   • The name and description

   • The number of workloads included

   • The source cluster

Click a catalog name to view its details.

Example screenshot:

Next Steps

Once your App Catalog is ready, you can:

• Create a Lapdev Environment from it

• Learn about Environment types

• Understand Cluster roles for multi-cluster setups