Home / Articles / Spreadsheet to App: a session programme for Algarve Evolution, with five example spreadsheets, five prompts, a mock event and a public vault, so nobody arrives needing a problem to solve

Spreadsheet to App: a session programme for Algarve Evolution, with five example spreadsheets, five prompts, a mock event and a public vault, so nobody arrives needing a problem to solve

By Dinis Cruz · 2026-10-31 · article v1.0.0 · newsroom v0.14.25 · algarveeventsspreadsheetsexplorer-codinglovableeducationvillagersarticle

Abstract: The next proposal for Algarve Evolution connects all the others: a programme of sessions with one premise, let's turn your spreadsheet into an application. To take part you need two things: an account with a model that can build an app, Lovable, Claude, ChatGPT, Mistral or another, and a spreadsheet or document from your work, with dummy data that looks like the real thing and can be published. That is all. It avoids the moment that stalls so many workshops, when someone asks what problem you want to solve and the room goes quiet. Here, people arrive with the problem already written down, as a spreadsheet they use every week. For anyone who arrives without one, there are five ready-made examples, invented and publishable: a holiday home closing checklist kept as a Word document, a restaurant's stock and suppliers, a surf school's bookings, a freelancer's invoices, and an association's members and events. Five prompts, in order, take any of them from a list you can search, to a form, to the view you use most, to a history of every run, to a published app. The day has a timetable, mentors at the tables, a moment where each app is handed to someone at another table, and a session on what it takes for five or fifty people to use it. The apps can be published from each person's own tool, or from a GitHub organisation with a repository per participant made from a template, or moved there by a small team of providers in the afternoon. The examples, prompts, event plan and one converted app are in a public vault. Many of these apps will break later, and that is the market.

In short

• One premise: let's turn your spreadsheet into an application.
• Two requirements: a model that can build an app, and a spreadsheet or document with dummy data that can be published.
• No blank page. People arrive with the problem written down, or pick one of five ready-made examples.
• Five prompts, in order, take any spreadsheet from a searchable list to a published app.
• A mock event, timetabled, with a hand-the-app-to-someone moment and a session on the handover.
• Three ways to publish: each person's own tool, a GitHub repository per participant, or a team that moves them.
• The pack is a public vault, with the first example converted into an app.

The premise

This programme connects the proposals I have written for Algarve Evolution today. From a checklist to an app you calibrate is the method. Selling to the companies that already have the problem is the market it creates. Villager services are what comes after. This is the event that starts it.

The premise is one sentence: let's turn your spreadsheet into an application. It brings out the people we most want to reach: people in local businesses who already run part of their work on spreadsheets, who are curious about AI, and who want to understand it by doing something useful.

The only two requirements

1. An account with a model that can build an app: Lovable, Claude, ChatGPT, Mistral or another.
2. A spreadsheet or document from your work, with dummy data: the same shape as the real one, close enough to be useful, and safe to publish.

That is all. Dummy data matters for two reasons. It keeps everything confidential out, so nothing has to be protected. And it means the app can be published and shared on the day, which is where the learning happens.

No blank page

Most workshops stall at the same moment: someone asks what problem you want to solve, and the room goes quiet. Here, people arrive with the problem already written down, as a spreadsheet they use every week.

For anyone who arrives without one, or who wants to practise first, there are five ready-made examples, invented and publishable:

• Closing the house: a holiday home checklist kept for years as a Word document, the important steps in bold.
• Restaurant stock: items, minimums, suppliers and order days.
• Surf school bookings: lessons, students, instructors, beaches and payments.
• Freelancer invoices: clients, due dates, amounts and what has been paid.
• Association members: members, membership type, who has paid, and the events they came to.

Five prompts, in order

Each prompt is sent on its own, and the app is used between each one:

1. A list I can search. Show the spreadsheet as a list I can search and filter; keep the data in the browser, with no database, no login and no server.
2. Add and change rows. A form to add, edit and delete; saved in the browser; export and import as CSV.
3. The view I use most. Today's tasks, what to order, unpaid invoices, this week's lessons: first screen, most important items first, each one marked done.
4. Remember every run. A small dated record of each run, what was done, what was skipped, and a note.
5. Publish it and say what it is. So someone else can open it, with a short note on what it does, where the data is kept, and what it does not do yet.

After the five: use it for real, and come back with what broke or what was missing. That is the next prompt.

A worked example

The first example, the holiday home checklist, is converted into an app in the pack. It shows the three phases, the day before, on the day and when we arrive back; the essential steps first, then the rest; a way to add a step; a note and a history for every run; and an honest "about" that says the data stays in the browser and that sharing between two phones is not there yet. It is the kind of app a participant can have by the afternoon.

The day

A mock timetable, in the format of the Vibathon:

• 09:00 Welcome, and why spreadsheets become apps now.
• 09:15 A live demo: one example to a published app, with the five prompts.
• 09:45 Build, part one: prompts one and two, with mentors at the tables.
• 11:30 Each table shows one thing that worked and one that broke.
• 13:00 After lunch, build, part two: prompts three to five, and publish.
• 15:30 Give your app to someone at another table, and watch them use it.
• 16:00 The handover: what it takes for five or fifty people to use it, backups, changes and security.
• 16:45 Show and tell.
• 17:30 Next steps: which apps will be released properly, and by whom.

Where the apps live

There are three options, and a programme can use all of them:

• Each person's own tool. Lovable, a Claude artifact or a ChatGPT canvas can all publish a small app with a link.
• A GitHub organisation for the programme, with a template repository; each participant gets a repository made from it, published with GitHub Pages. Everyone starts from the same base, and every app has a history.
• A small team that moves them. Participants publish from their own tool, share the link, and a team of the region's providers moves the app into the organisation for them during the afternoon. This is the first taste of villager services, on the day.

The pack, in a vault

The examples, the five prompts, the mock event plan and the converted app are published together as a public, read-only vault, so Algarve Evolution's team can open it, copy it and use it for the first session. Everything in it is invented and licensed for reuse. Open it in the vault browser, or clone it with pip install sgit-ai and sgit clone sgit_public_read_0389c67172f1a4b603e0b2d38e816284f8744e9249c132332914d468d6a17f3d:ph10xfc1.

Why this creates the market

The sessions give people a great deal of value on the day: an app made from their own work, in their own hands. And many of those apps will break later, as I wrote in the previous article, when more people need them and the person who built them has a day job. That is when the region's providers come in, and that is the market these sessions create.

What this does not claim

• It is a proposal, with a mock event. No session has been run yet.
• Every example, person and figure in the pack is invented.
• The converted app was built for this article, to show what the five prompts produce; a participant's will look different.
• The models change. The prompts are written for any model that can build and publish a small web app.
• My interest: The Cyber Boardroom is joining Algarve Evolution and offers villager services.

Where this comes from

• My voice memo of 31 October 2026, word for word in admin/notes/2026-10-31__algarve-evolution/memo-05.md in this site's repository.
• The pack: five examples, the prompts, the event plan and the converted app, in the public vault ph10xfc1, published on 31 October 2026.
• Related: from a checklist to an app you calibrate, sell to the companies that already have the problem, villager services for explorer coders, an Algarve talent map, Vibathon Algarve 2026.

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