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September office hours recap, and our next session

3-min readPublished Sep 9, 2026

Thanks to everyone who joined the September App Development Office Hours! If you missed it, the recording is up and here's a quick rundown of what we covered:

  • 4 new code optimization guides
  • A new error messages pattern
  • App Toolkit updates
  • A look ahead at Strato 4.0
  • An announcement about the Developer Newsletter

The next session is Tuesday, November 10.

Here are the topics we covered, in the order they appear in the recording, with links to the documentation for each one.

New for app builders​

New guides under Code optimization:

  • Stale-while-revalidate—serve a cached result instantly while a fresh one loads in the background, so users see data instead of a spinner. See Stale-while-revalidate.
  • Prevent layout shift—reserve the right amount of space during loading so content below doesn't jump. See Prevent layout shift.
  • Bundler-friendly code—3 common habits (TypeScript enums, module-level side effects, and classes) that quietly block tree-shaking in app functions. See Bundler-friendly code.

From the Strato design system​

  • Error messages—a new pattern covering which component to reach for (EmptyState, HealthIndicator, MessageContainer, or Toast) and 8 principles for writing error copy that helps users recover. See Error messages.
  • Accessibility improvements—Strato 3.11 through 3.13 shipped a batch of fixes across keyboard navigation, screen reader announcements, and accessible names on icon-only triggers. Run dt-app update to pick them up with no code changes. See the components changelog and Accessibility.

App Toolkit updates​

The --hmr flag now covers action and settings widgets in addition to app UIs, and 2 new scaffold commands—dt-app document create and dt-app setting create—stub out the boilerplate for you. See the App Toolkit release notes.

Plan ahead for Strato 4.0​

The next major Strato version (expected around end of CQ1) will require React 19, replace Jest with Vitest, and ship ES modules only. Nothing to act on today, but worth bookmarking Upcoming changes—and if you're still on Jest, Create unit tests with Vitest is already published.

The Developer Newsletter has ended​

The Developer Newsletter published its final edition (#38) in August. The What's new blog is where we publish app-development news now. The archive stays online on the community.

From the community​

How do you get secrets into an app function? Not with a .env file—those aren't picked up at runtime. Use the Credential Vault for a shared credential an admin owns, or app settings with a "type": "secret" property for config each installation's users supply. See Manage secrets and Store app settings.

Next session​

The next App Development Office Hours is Tuesday, November 10, 4:00 PM CET / 10:00 AM EST. Registration isn't open yet—we'll share the event on LinkedIn closer to the date, and you'll be able to sign up there.

Note

Got a topic you'd like us to cover? Drop it in the Developer Q&A Forum.