# Overview > **Warning** > > Project Neo is currently in [Technical Preview](../../../a-z/squirro-glossary.md#term-Technical-Preview). Features described in this section may change before general availability. The Project Neo bundle system lets development teams build custom dashboards that load into the Project Neo host application at runtime. A bundle is a separate React and TypeScript project with its own repository, dependencies, and build pipeline. It installs `@squirro/neo-core` as a library, which provides build configuration, shared types, and UI components. The `@squirro/neo-ui` tool scaffolds the project and handles development and builds. At runtime, the bundle connects to the host application through Module Federation, a webpack and rspack feature that allows independently built applications to share code at runtime. ## Why This Architecture | Benefit | Details | | --- | --- | | Independent development and deployment | Bundles are separate projects with their own repository, CI pipeline, and release cycle. You can build, test, and deploy a bundle without coordinating with the Squirro core team or waiting for a host release. | | No host changes needed | Adding, renaming, or removing dashboards is a bundle-side operation. The host discovers bundles at runtime. No code changes or redeployment of the core application are required. | | Per-project customization | Different Squirro projects can load different bundles. A legal team can have a legislation dashboard while a research team has an analytics dashboard, each configured via the `frontend.ui-bundle` project setting. | | Isolation | Bundle bugs cannot crash the core application. Bundles cannot inject global CSS, access host internals, or modify core application logic. The host remains stable regardless of what bundles do. | | Native feel | Unlike iframe-based approaches, bundles share the same React instance, router, theme, and navigation as the host. Dashboards look and behave like built-in features. | | Lazy loading | Dashboard code is only fetched when the user navigates to it. Bundles add no overhead to the initial application load. | | Familiar tooling | Bundles use standard React and TypeScript with npm tooling. There is no proprietary framework to learn. | ## What You Can Build - **Custom dashboards** Full-page React components with access to Squirro data, shared UI components, and the active project context. Each dashboard appears automatically in the Project Neo sidebar navigation. - **Translation overrides** Customize any text in the core Project Neo interface per language, without modifying host code. That means bundles can tailor the entire application experience, not just the dashboards they add. For more information, see the [Translations](translations.md#neo-extensions-translations) page. ## What You Cannot Do Bundles have defined boundaries to keep the core product stable: - You cannot override or modify built-in widgets. - You cannot inject global CSS that affects the host interface. - You cannot hook into core widget internals. - You cannot modify core application logic. If a use case requires changes to core features, that is a product request. ## How It Works When a user opens a Squirro project, the Project Neo host checks whether the project has a bundle configured via the `frontend.ui-bundle` project setting. If it does, the host fetches the bundle manifest: a TypeScript file that declares the bundle dashboards, including their title, icon, URL route, and the React component to render. The host then: 1. Adds navigation entries to the sidebar for each dashboard. 2. Creates dynamic routes so each dashboard is accessible at its URL. 3. Lazy-loads the dashboard component on demand when the user navigates to it. No host code changes are required. Adding, renaming, or removing dashboards is handled entirely within the bundle project. The host and bundle are deployed independently. You upload a bundle to the Squirro backend and associate it with specific projects through the `frontend.ui-bundle` project setting, so each project loads only the bundle assigned to it. When the host loads a bundle manifest, it deduplicates shared libraries such as React, the router, and state management, loading them once, while all other bundle code stays isolated from the host and from other bundles. ## Development Workflow The following commands cover the full bundle development lifecycle: ```bash neo-ui create bundle # Scaffold a complete bundle project neo-ui create dashboard # Add a dashboard to the project neo-ui dev # Start local development servers neo-ui build # Build the bundle for production deployment ``` For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the [Quick Start](quick-start.md#neo-extensions-quick-start) page. ## Package Overview | Package | Description | | --- | --- | | `@squirro/neo-ui` | The `neo-ui` CLI tool for project scaffolding, development server, build, and deployment. | | `@squirro/neo-core` | Everything a bundle imports at runtime, split into the entry points below. | Both packages are published on the public npm registry. `@squirro/neo-core` is a single package with several entry points. Import from the subpath rather than from the root, so your bundle only pulls in what it uses: | Import path | What it provides | Guide | | --- | --- | --- | | `@squirro/neo-core` | `defineBundleManifest`, `defineThemeManifest`, and the manifest and theme types. | [The Bundle Manifest](manifest.md#neo-extensions-manifest) | | `@squirro/neo-core/config` | `createBundleConfig`, the Rsbuild configuration factory, along with `sharedDependencies`, `validateDependencies`, the default development ports, and the `tsconfig.extension.json` and `biome.extension.json` presets. | [Project Structure](project-structure.md#neo-extensions-project-structure) | | `@squirro/neo-core/components` | Host-themed UI primitives such as buttons, forms, dialogs, and charts. | [Styling and Components](styling-and-components.md#neo-extensions-styling) | | `@squirro/neo-core/items` | Item widgets: item cards, item lists, and the item detail view with the default PDF viewer. | [Building Dashboard Components](building-dashboards.md#neo-extensions-building-dashboards) | | `@squirro/neo-core/chat` | The embeddable chat widget (`ChatProvider` and `ChatPanel`) and the stream primitives beneath it. | [The Chat Widget](chat-widget.md#neo-extensions-chat-widget) | | `@squirro/neo-core/api` | `useSquirroApi()`, the typed and authenticated client for items, facets, files, conversations, and groups. | [Squirro API](squirro-api.md#neo-extensions-api) | | `@squirro/neo-core/citations` | Helpers to parse and render GenAI answer citations, including `CitationBadge` and `parseSquirroReference`. Use them rather than writing your own parsing. | None | | `@squirro/neo-core/export` | `exportAsDocx` and `exportAsPDF` for plain-text exports. The `@squirro/neo-core/export/markdown-to-docx` subpath holds the rich Markdown to DOCX engine, kept separate because it pulls in heavy dependencies. | None | | `@squirro/neo-core/utils` | `cn`, `getInitials`, and `getRelativeTimeLabel`. | None | | `@squirro/neo-core/version` | `evaluateCompat`, which reports whether a bundle is compatible with the host version it is loaded into. | [Building and Deploying](build-and-deploy.md#neo-extensions-build-and-deploy) | Everything a bundle can import from `@squirro/neo-core` is documented visually in the component catalog at [neo-catalog.squirro.com](https://neo-catalog.squirro.com), with live previews, prop tables, and copy-paste import examples. For more information, see the [Styling and Components](styling-and-components.md#neo-extensions-styling) page.