TPA Recipes

A recipe is a small file that describes how to clean up and connect a specific third-party web app inside FreedomDesktop.

Anatomy of a Recipe

{
  "name": "BC Assessment",
  "url": "https://www.bcassessment.ca",
  "css": "header, footer, .sidebar { display: none; }",
  "extract": {
    "address": "CSS selector or JS expression",
    "assessed_value": "CSS selector or JS expression"
  },
  "events": {
    "property_selected": "fires when user clicks a result"
  }
}

CSS strips the bloat: navigation bars, footers, sidebars, ads. Shows only the core UI and data.

Extract reads structured data from the DOM: addresses, prices, dates, document status. Data the app already has but doesn’t expose in a usable way.

Events listen for user actions and broadcast them to other panels via the data bus.

Who Writes Recipes

Anyone. AI can write recipes. “Hey Claude, write me a FreedomDesktop recipe for Zillow that extracts the price, address, and photos.” That is a small file, not a software project.

Share recipes like you share bookmarks. No app store. No approval process. No SDK to learn. If you can write CSS and a bit of JS, you can write a recipe.

Industry Packs

The same FreedomDesktop, different recipes:

Industry	Example Panels
Real estate	MLS + BC Assessment + Maps + CRM + DocuSign
Legal	Case management + Court filings + DocuSign + Email
Wedding planning	Pinterest + Venue site + Google Sheets + Canva
Small business	Invoicing + CRM + Project manager + Calendar

The panel layout, the data bus, the collaboration features — all identical. Only the recipes change. The platform is generic. The recipes are vertical-specific.

Why Not Chrome Extensions?

Chrome Extension	FreedomDesktop Recipe
Runs inside Chrome’s sandbox	Runs inside FreedomDesktop with a Go backend
Cannot control window layout	Full screen: VSCode-like splitters, multi-monitor
Cannot bridge data between tabs	Data bus bridges any panel to any other
Chrome sees everything you do	No browser vendor in the loop
Web Store approval process	Recipes are files — share like bookmarks

The fundamental difference: a Chrome extension extends a browser owned by Google. A FreedomDesktop recipe runs inside an application you control.

Self-Created Apps

One of your panels does not have to be a third-party app. It can be a local HTML file — a custom tool you built, or had AI build for you.

Someone creates a showing scheduler with Bolt or Cursor. It is just HTML, JS, and CSS. Drop it on your group’s lighthouse. It runs as a panel alongside your other apps. Same data bus. Same collaboration. This answers the “then what?” problem: AI tools let anyone build an app, but deploying it requires hosting and auth. In FreedomCore, you drop a file and your group can use it.