---
title: What is Blockly?
description: What the Blockly library is and is not.
image: images/blockly_banner.png
---

# What is Blockly?

Blockly is a web library that lets you add a customizable blocks-based code
editor to your app. The editor uses puzzle-piece like blocks to represent code
concepts like variables, logical expressions, loops, and more. It lets users
program without having to worry about syntax or the intimidation of the command
line.

:::note
Blockly is for developers, Blockly apps are for learners. If you're here
to use apps rather than build them, try some of the products from [companies
that create Blockly apps][blockly-apps].
:::

Breaking it down further, you can think of Blockly in two ways:

1.  Like a fun puzzle-piece UI.
2.  Like a fancy string builder.

You define the puzzle connections and input fields, and then Blockly handles the
complicated rendering, dragging, and connecting of them.

You define the string (usually code) that gets generated for each block, and
then Blockly handles concatenating whole strings of blocks. What you do with
that result is up to you. You can do anything from solving a maze, to animating
a character, to analyzing some data. For more examples, see the [Introduction to
Blockly applications](/guides/design/app-overview).

Blockly lets you focus on applying blocks to your domain without worrying about
the details of how blocks work. For more information see
[Why Blockly?][why-blockly]

[blockly-apps]: https://blockly.com/#learn-with-blockly
[why-blockly]: /guides/get-started/why-blockly
