Plans, questions and approvals

Buildliy works on its own most of the time, but it checks with you at the moments that matter: when it needs information only you have, before a bigger change, and before anything that affects your customers, money or data. Each time, a card appears just above the chat box. You answer with a click, and many cards also take an answer typed in the chat box.

Only one card shows at a time. If more are waiting, a small link shows how many; click it to see them all.

Question cards

When the AI needs a decision only you can make, it asks with a question card. A card can hold up to four questions, shown one at a time with a step counter such as "1 of 3".

• Pick an answer. Choices appear as buttons. The AI may mark one as Recommended. Some questions let you pick several answers. On a card with a single quick question, tapping a choice answers it straight away.
• Write your own. Choose Other… (Write your own answer) and type in the box.
• Let the AI decide. Click Use your best guess and it goes with what it thinks is right. Any answers you already picked on earlier questions still count.
• Move through the card with Back and Continue. Continue on the last question sends your answers (the button says Save when you're entering a key). Once the card has keyboard focus (click a choice or Tab into it), you can also press a number key to pick an option and Enter to continue.

While the build is waiting on a card, you can also type your answer in the chat box. The box shows Answering: and the card's title, and what you send answers the question the card is showing.

Keys and passwords for services

If your app needs a key for an outside service, the card asks for it in a secure field marked Saved as and the key's name. Keys are saved encrypted and never appear in the chat or in your app's code. The project's owner can change them later in Manage → Secrets. You can Skip a key question. If a key with that name is already saved, the card first asks Replace your saved …?, with Keep the old one or Replace it. See Secrets and API keys.

For a service that has a Buildliy connector, the AI may ask you to connect it instead. Payment keys are never asked for here: Stripe is connected from the payments setup. See Connectors and Take payments.

What happens while you decide

Usually the build pauses and waits for your answer. The card says The build is waiting for your answer. Answering while it waits doesn't start a new build, and the time spent waiting doesn't count toward the build's time limit or its cost.

If you don't answer within about four minutes, the build carries on with the AI's recommended choices and says which ones it picked. The card stays open and now says Answering starts a new build. Answering it later starts a follow-up build, which uses credits like any build. A key can't be guessed, so a build that needs one wraps up instead, and continues in a follow-up build once you've added it.

A build can only wait so long in total. If it has already waited a lot, a new card says Answering starts a new build from the start, and the build wraps up without waiting.

The plan card

Before a bigger change, Buildliy shows a plan and waits for your OK. Nothing is built until you approve it.

By default, you get a plan card when a change adds sign-in or payments to an app that doesn't have them yet. If you choose Ask before every change I flag in How careful should I be?, you also get one for other bigger changes, such as new saved data, new pages, or changes with three or more steps. Your project's first build never needs a plan card, and neither does a "yes" to something the AI just offered to do.

1. 1

   Buildliy plans the change

   The card first shows Planning this change while it works out what's needed. If that takes a while, you can click Build without a plan. If the change turns out to be small, the build simply starts.

2. 2

   Read the plan

   The card changes to Here's what I'll build, with a rough time estimate, a list of what will be built and, where it applies, what isn't changing.

3. 3

   Approve or adjust it

   Click Build it to start. Or click Change the plan, type what should be different in the chat box, and send it. Buildliy updates the plan and shows the new version.

Planning uses a small amount of credits, and the build itself is charged like any other. If another build is already running, you can click Build it once that build finishes. Requests queued in Up next wait while a plan card is open.

Warning cards before sensitive changes

Before a change that could affect your customers, money or data, Buildliy stops and asks in plain English. The card lays out What happens, Who it affects, Can it be undone? and the Cost, then offers a safe choice, the risky choice, and Do it differently…. Which changes get a card depends on How careful should I be?.

Examples of what it asks about:

What your choice does:

• The safe choice: Buildliy leaves that part out and does the safe thing instead, such as keeping data private or showing a "Coming soon" button where a checkout would go.
• The risky choice: the change goes ahead.
• Do it differently…: a box opens where you tell the AI what to do instead. Click Send and it follows your words instead of the original change.

If you don't answer within about three minutes, the build carries on without the risky part, and its final reply says so ("Waiting for your OK: …"). The card stays open, and answering later starts a follow-up build, which uses credits like any build.

Steps that can't easily be undone

The AI also asks before steps such as deleting files or a database table, removing a package, or rewriting your code's history. These cards show the exact step it wants to run, with buttons named for what they do (for example Keep it / Remove it).

If you don't answer within about three minutes, or the build can't pause, the build wraps up and a card titled Approval needed before continuing stays above the chat box, with Reject, Do it differently… and Approve & continue. Approving starts the build again, which uses credits. Rejecting means the step doesn't run. If someone else started the build, only the project's owner or an Admin can answer this card.

Changes to your app's data

Before the AI changes or deletes rows of saved data in your app, it shows how many rows are affected, usually with a few examples, for example "This deletes 37 bookings". Only the project's owner can approve these.

Offers to set things up

Two more cards can appear when your app needs something:

• Your app needs accounts and saved data appears when the AI works out that your request needs sign-in and saved data you didn't ask for, and your app, on Buildliy hosting, doesn't save any data yet. It lists what it would add. Click Set it up, or Not yet to continue with clearly labeled sample data. If you don't answer within about four minutes, the build goes ahead as it would have without the card; the card stays open, and Set it up later adds them in a new build. See User sign-in and Database.
• Let's connect payments or Ready for real payments? appears for the project owner when your app sells something and your Stripe account can't take real payments yet. Click Connect Stripe to start connecting your own Stripe account, or Later to keep test payments for now. See Take payments.

How careful should I be?

You choose how often Buildliy stops to ask on each project. Open Workspace → Knowledge; the How careful should I be? card is below your project knowledge.

Changes apply from your next build. Only the project's owner or an Admin can change this setting; other teammates see it read-only.

Heads-up lines

When a change with a consequence goes ahead without a card, Buildliy tells you as it happens with an amber line in the live feed that starts Heads up:. For example:

• "Heads up: this makes the booking list public. Names will show, emails won't."
• "Heads up: your app can now email everyone on … at once. Sent emails can't be taken back."
• "Heads up: … got a lot shorter (about 40% less). Restore the previous version from the chat if something's missing."

Each line has an Undo button. During a build, it asks the AI to reverse that change in the same build (if the build can't take it any more, the undo request goes into the chat box for you to send). After the build, it sends an undo request straight away, which runs as a new build. The final reply repeats the heads-ups so you don't miss them.

Goal mode

Goal mode keeps working toward a bigger result across several builds, so you don't have to send each step yourself.

1. 1

   Start a goal

   In the chat box, click +, then Start a goal. Or type /goal followed by what you want.

2. 2

   Describe the finished result

   For example, "a launch-ready website for my yoga studio". If you own the project, choose where it Stops at: 20 credits, 40 credits (the default) or 80 credits. A goal a teammate starts uses the 40-credit limit.

3. 3

   Let it work

   Buildliy splits the goal into parts and builds one part per build, with a short note after each. A goal card shows progress, such as "Run 3 of about 5".

Use Pause goal, Resume and Stop on the goal card (Stop asks Stop for good? to confirm). A goal stops when every part is done, when it reaches your credit limit (or the next build would likely go past it), after 10 builds, or when a build ends with an error. It pauses when you send your own message, when a request is waiting in Up next, when a build asks you something, or when you run out of credits; click Resume to carry on.

Each part is a normal build and uses credits like any other. You can have one goal open per project at a time, running or paused. You can't start or resume a goal while another build is running.

Related

• Chat with Buildliy
• Project knowledge
• Credits and usage
• Security and privacy