---
title: "Application context - Glossary | MDN"
chunk: 1/3
source: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context"
category: "reference"
tags: "web, html, css, javascript, documentation"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T05:24:20.353655+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

  * [Skip to main content](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context#content)
  * [Skip to search](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context#search)

[ MDN ](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/)
HTML
[HTML: Markup language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML) 

HTML reference
    
  * [Elements](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements)
  * [Global attributes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes)
  * [Attributes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Attributes)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference "See all HTML references")

HTML guides
    
  * [Responsive images](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Responsive_images)
  * [HTML cheatsheet](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Cheatsheet)
  * [Date & time formats](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Date_and_time_formats)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides "See all HTML guides")

Markup languages
    
  * [SVG](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG)
  * [MathML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/MathML)
  * [XML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XML)

CSS
[CSS: Styling language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS) 

CSS reference
    
  * [Properties](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Properties)
  * [Selectors](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Selectors)
  * [At-rules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/At-rules)
  * [Values](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference "See all CSS references")

CSS guides
    
  * [Box model](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Box_model/Introduction)
  * [Animations](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Animations/Using)
  * [Flexbox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Flexible_box_layout/Basic_concepts)
  * [Colors](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Applying_color)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides "See all CSS guides")

Layout cookbook
    
  * [Column layouts](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Column_layouts)
  * [Centering an element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Center_an_element)
  * [Card component](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Card)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook)

JavaScriptJS
[JavaScript: Scripting language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript) 

JS reference
    
  * [Standard built-in objects](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects)
  * [Expressions & operators](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators)
  * [Statements & declarations](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements)
  * [Functions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Functions)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference "See all JavaScript references")

JS guides
    
  * [Control flow & error handing](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Control_flow_and_error_handling)
  * [Loops and iteration](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Loops_and_iteration)
  * [Working with objects](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Working_with_objects)
  * [Using classes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Using_classes)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide "See all JavaScript guides")

Web APIs
[Web APIs: Programming interfaces](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API) 

Web API reference
    
  * [File system API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System_API)
  * [Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API)
  * [Geolocation API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Geolocation_API)
  * [HTML DOM API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTML_DOM_API)
  * [Push API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Push_API)
  * [Service worker API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API "See all Web API guides")

Web API guides
    
  * [Using the Web animation API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Animations_API/Using_the_Web_Animations_API)
  * [Using the Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API/Using_Fetch)
  * [Working with the History API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API/Working_with_the_History_API)
  * [Using the Web speech API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Speech_API/Using_the_Web_Speech_API)
  * [Using web workers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API/Using_web_workers)

All
[All web technology](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web) 

Technologies
    
  * [Accessibility](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility)
  * [HTTP](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP)
  * [URI](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI)
  * [Web extensions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions)
  * [WebAssembly](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly)
  * [WebDriver](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/WebDriver)
  * [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web "See all web technology references")

Topics
    
  * [Media](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media)
  * [Performance](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Performance)
  * [Privacy](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Privacy)
  * [Security](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security)
  * [Progressive web apps](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps)

Learn
[Learn web development](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development) 

Frontend developer course
    
  * [Getting started modules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started)
  * [Core modules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core)
  * [MDN Curriculum](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/curriculum/)
  * [Check out the video course from Scrimba, our partner](https://scrimba.com/frontend-path-c0j?via=mdn-learn-navbar)

Learn HTML
    
  * [Structuring content with HTML module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Structuring_content)

Learn CSS
    
  * [CSS styling basics module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics)
  * [CSS layout module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/CSS_layout)

Learn JavaScript
    
  * [Dynamic scripting with JavaScript module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Scripting)

Tools
Discover our tools 
  * [Playground](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/play)
  * [HTTP Observatory](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory)

  * [Border-image generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Border-image_generator)
  * [Border-radius generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Border-radius_generator)
  * [Box-shadow generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Box-shadow_generator)
  * [Color format converter](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Color_format_converter)
  * [Color mixer](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Color_mixer)
  * [Shape generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Shapes/Shape_generator)

About
Get to know MDN better 
  * [About MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/about)
  * [Advertise with us](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/advertising)

  * [Community](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/community)
  * [MDN on GitHub](https://github.com/mdn)

[Blog](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/)
  1. [Glossary](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary)
  2. [Application context](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context)

# Application context
**Application context** refers to the top-level [browsing context](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Browsing_context) of a [web application](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps). It determines how an app's browsing context, such as a tab or a window, is presented and behaves.
Web developers define the application context in the [web app's manifest file](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Manifest). They use the [`scope`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Manifest/Reference/scope) member in the manifest to specify the set of URLs that are considered part of the application context and to which the manifest applies.
The manifest is applied after the application context is created but before navigation begins to either a start URL or a deep link. A **start URL** is the initial page of the web app. A **deep link** is a URL that directs users to a specific page within the web app, bypassing the home page. The application context ensures that the app's defined behavior and presentation are maintained within its scope.
When an application context is created, browsers must immediately navigate to a start URL or a deep link. This navigation replaces the current entry in the browsing history. If the application context is created to navigate to a deep link, the browser navigates directly to that deep link; otherwise, it navigates to the start URL.
Note that the start URL is not necessarily the value of the [`start_url`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Manifest/Reference/start_url) member in the manifest. Browsers may ignore the specified `start_url` or may allow users to change its value when adding the web app to their device's home screen or bookmarking it.
## In this article
  * [See also](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context#see_also)

##  [See also](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Application_context#see_also)
  * [`scope`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Manifest/Reference/scope)
  * [Web app manifests](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Manifest)
  * [Progressive web apps (PWA)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps)