The Five Stages

Every Studio project moves through five stages, from defining your idea to releasing your plugin.

Discovery → Build → Test & Iterate → Final Review → Published / Promoted

1. Discovery

Define what you want your plugin to do.

• Describe your idea and answer Studio's clarifying questions.

• Choose where your plugin will run in Canvas.

• Review the User Plan (what the plugin will do) and Technical Plan (how it will be built).

Next step: Once both plans are ready and you're satisfied with the requirements, click Approve Plan & Start Building.

2. Build

Studio builds your plugin based on the approved plans.

• Follow the build progress in the chat.

• Complete any required settings in the Configuration Required panel.

• Studio prepares a testing plan for your plugin.

Next step: Once the build and testing plan are complete and any required settings are configured, click Deploy Now for Testing.

3. Test & Iterate

Test your plugin in Canvas to confirm it works as expected.

1. Review the Testing Checklist. Studio completes automated tests and provides additional tests for you to perform.

2. Test in Canvas. Mark each test as Passed, Failed, or Skipped.

3. Request fixes. If something doesn't work, describe the issue in the chat. Studio can update and redeploy the plugin.

4. Regenerate tests. After deploying changes, click Regenerate Tests to update your checklist. Repeat testing and adjustments until the plugin meets your requirements.

Next step: Once all tests are marked Passed or Skipped, click Confirm Successful Testing.

4. Final Review

Studio performs final quality checks and generates a Final Review document.

• Review the summary to confirm the plugin is ready for release. Pay particular attention to the Before You Go Live section, which highlights important considerations or limitations.

• Next step: Once the review is complete, select Publish or Promote, depending on your organization's release settings.

5. Published / Promoted.

Your plugin has completed the Studio development process.

The final status depends on your organization's release process:

• Published: Your plugin has been released to the selected Canvas environment.

• Promoted: Your plugin has been sent to your team's code repository for review and release through your organization's process. It is not necessarily live yet.

Need to make changes later? Click Back to Test & Iterate to return to testing and make updates.

For details, see Publishing and Updating Studio Plugins.

Plans & documents

Studio automatically creates documents throughout your project. You can access them in tabs above the chat or download them for reference.

• User Plan - Describes what your plugin will do in plain language.

• Technical Plan - Explains how the plugin will be built. Technical knowledge isn't required to review your project.

• Tradeoffs - Documents important design decisions, limitations, and considerations.

• Testing Checklist - Lists the tests used to verify your plugin works as expected.

• Final Review - Summarizes the completed plugin and important considerations before release.

Documents update as Studio makes changes. If you have a document open when it's updated, you'll see a prompt to reload the latest version.

Understanding Tradeoffs

Some plugin features involve tradeoffs, such as limits on how long data is stored or how well a solution handles larger volumes of activity.

Studio explains these considerations as decisions are made and records them in the Tradeoffs document.

Important tradeoffs also appear in the Before You Go Live section of your Final Review.

What if you disagree with a tradeoff?

Tell Studio what concerns you or what you'd prefer. The assistant can help explore alternative approaches before you proceed.

Next: Testing and deployment in Studio · Publishing and updating Studio plugins