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Full Lightning App Builder entry
How-to guide

How to set up Lightning App Builder in Salesforce

Lightning App Builder is the drag-and-drop tool for building Lightning Pages — App Pages, Home Pages, and Record Pages. Lightning Pages override Page Layouts for everything outside the Details tab and are the primary UI customization tool in modern Salesforce.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Apr 20, 2026

Lightning App Builder is the drag-and-drop tool for building Lightning Pages — App Pages, Home Pages, and Record Pages. Lightning Pages override Page Layouts for everything outside the Details tab and are the primary UI customization tool in modern Salesforce.

  1. Open Setup → Lightning App Builder

    Setup gear → Quick Find: Lightning App Builder → Lightning App Builder.

  2. Click New

    Top-right of the Lightning Pages list.

  3. Pick a Page Type

    App Page (a custom tab inside a Lightning App), Home Page (the org's home), or Record Page (a record's detail experience). Most work happens on Record Pages.

  4. Pick a Template

    1-region, 2-region (header-aside), 3-region, etc. The template controls regions you can drop components into.

  5. Drag components from the left rail

    Standard components (Highlights Panel, Tabs, Activity, Related Lists, Path), custom Lightning Web Components, and AppExchange components are all draggable.

  6. Set component properties on the right rail

    Each component has its own property panel. Visibility filters (by Profile / App / Record / Permission Set) hide components from users who don't match.

  7. Save → Activate

    Save the page. Activate scope: Org Default / App Default / App and Profile-specific. Most orgs do App and Profile-specific for fine-grained control.

Key options
Page Typeremember

App Page / Home Page / Record Page. Locked at creation.

Templateremember

1-region / 2-region / 3-region / Pinned Header etc. Drives the canvas layout.

Component Visibilityremember

Filter rules per component — hide if Profile != X, hide if Record.Field = Y, etc.

Activation Scoperemember

Org Default (single page for everyone) / App Default (per-app default) / App + Profile (per-app per-profile).

Gotchas
  • Lightning Record Pages override Page Layouts for everything except the Details tab. If a button or related list isn't appearing, check the Lightning Record Page in Lightning App Builder before assuming the Page Layout is wrong.
  • Component Visibility filters are evaluated per-record. Heavy use of complex filters slows down record-page render. Profile filters are cheap; record-field filters are not.
  • Activation scope confusion is the #1 admin headache. "Org Default" means literally everyone everywhere, which is rarely what you want — App + Profile is almost always the right choice.

See the full Lightning App Builder entry

Lightning App Builder includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.