5 Things To Do Before You Launch Your App

Launching an app without the right groundwork can lead to security vulnerabilities, poor developer experience, and performance headaches down the road. Here are the five key things you should do before your Xano app goes live — no matter what kind of application you're building.

1. Lock Down API Security and Authentication

Start by reviewing every endpoint in your API groups. Any endpoint that returns sensitive data or accepts user input should require authentication. In Xano, you can switch an endpoint from public to private by enabling user authentication in the endpoint settings. Once saved and published, unauthenticated requests will be blocked — protecting your data from unauthorized access.

2. Configure CORS Rules

By default, Xano allows any frontend to make requests to your endpoints. Before launch, use the CORS management settings on each endpoint to restrict which origins, methods, and headers are permitted. You can disable specific HTTP methods like GET or POST, or whitelist only your own domain. This ensures that browsers only communicate with your backend in the ways you explicitly allow.

3. Control Internal vs. External Access

Not every endpoint needs to be publicly visible. In each endpoint's settings, you'll find an External Access toggle. Disabling this hides the endpoint entirely from the outside world — even if it's technically set to public. This is especially useful for endpoints that aren't production-ready or should only be called internally by other functions.

4. Secure Your Swagger Documentation

Your Swagger docs expose your API structure to anyone who finds the URL. Head into your API group settings and set Swagger to private (requiring a token) or disabled entirely. This prevents competitors or bad actors from mapping out your backend before you're ready.

5. Implement Logging and Unit Tests

Logging helps you track user behavior and catch errors early. Create a reusable custom function that accepts parameters like the user, message, and endpoint name, then call it throughout your business logic — including inside try/catch blocks to capture failures. Tag and organize your logging endpoints into their own API group to keep things clean.

Unit tests are equally important. After running an endpoint in Run & Debug, use the Create Unit Test button to capture inputs and expected outputs. Focus your assertions on dynamic values — for example, confirming that a response field is not null. Once saved, your tests appear in the Unit Tests dashboard under the Library, where you can monitor coverage and success rates across your entire application.

Optimize with Data Caching

For endpoints that serve frequently read but rarely updated data, enable Response Caching in the endpoint settings. The first request hits the database as usual, but the response is stored in memory. Subsequent identical requests are served from cache — dramatically reducing response times. You can configure a TTL (time to live) and set caching signatures based on inputs, auth ID, or IP address to fine-tune cache behavior for your use case.

Taking the time to work through each of these five areas will give you, your team, and your users a much better experience from day one.