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Assembly Studio is a two-audience platform. Your team works in the Dashboard. Your clients work in the Portal. When you build a client-facing app, you’re really building two coordinated experiences — and the client side is the one your business runs on.
Build with both windows open. The app builder’s biggest failure mode is shipping an app that’s polished on the team side and broken on the client side. The fix is cheap: keep a Portal tab open while you build.

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How the two sides relate

For a client-facing app, your team sees:
  • A global view in the sidebar (all clients)
  • A per-client view inside each client’s record
Your clients see:
  • One view in their Portal sidebar (just their own data)

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Set up a test client

1

Create a client with your own email

In the Dashboard, go to the Clients section and create a new client. Use an email you control but that isn’t your internal user email — a personal Gmail works.A common pattern is your-name+test@gmail.com. Most email providers route the +test variant to your main inbox while treating it as a distinct address.
2

Send the invite

Send the client invite. Open the invite email in your test inbox and click through. You’ll set a password and land in the Portal.
3

Bookmark both URLs

Bookmark your Dashboard and your Portal. Keep them in side-by-side windows while you build. Most iteration in the app builder is faster when you can see both surfaces at once.

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What to look for

When you switch into the client view, run through this list:
The app appears in the Portal sidebar (if it’s a client-facing app)
The client only sees their own data, not other clients’ data
Empty states look intentional, not broken
Actions a client should be able to take are obvious — and ones they shouldn’t are absent
Notifications coming from the app land in the right place
If any of these are off, head back to the Dashboard and tell the app builder in the build chat. One change at a time, then re-check the Portal.

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Switching back

Sign out of the Portal and sign in to the Dashboard with your internal user email. You can keep both signed in across two browsers or one regular and one incognito window.
Some teams set up a permanent demo client account and never delete it. It’s cheaper than recreating one every time you build something new.