Build your app
Write great prompts
How to describe your app and your changes so Buildliy builds what you have in mind, with example prompts you can copy.
A prompt is the message you type to Buildliy. You don't need special words or technical knowledge. The AI does best when you describe what you want the way you'd explain it to a capable person who has never seen your business: what the app is for, who uses it, what they should be able to do, and how it should feel.
This page covers the habits that get the best results, a simple structure for your first prompt, and example prompts for common jobs.
Six habits that work
- Describe the outcome, not the technology. Say what people should be able to do ("customers pick a time and book it"), not how to build it. Buildliy chooses the technology and sets up things like saving data for you.
- Say who it's for. "For my yoga students" or "for my team of five" changes the wording, the layout and what each person can see.
- Give real details. Your business name, your services and prices, your opening hours. Anything you leave out, the AI has to invent, and invented details read as generic.
- Describe the look and feel. Colors, mood and a few words of style ("warm and friendly", "clean and professional", "dark background with orange accents") go a long way.
- Say what to save and who sees what. If your app keeps bookings, orders or messages, say so, and say who can see them ("only I can see the bookings list", "each client sees only their own orders").
- Make one change at a time. After the first build, ask for one clear change per message. It's easier to check, and easier to undo if you don't like it.
If you're not sure what to ask for, switch the chat to Discuss and talk it through first. Discuss answers questions and helps you plan without changing your app. See Chat with Buildliy.
A structure for your first prompt
Your first prompt sets the direction for everything after it. A good one covers these points, in plain sentences:
| Part | Example |
|---|---|
| What it is | A booking website for my dog grooming business |
| Its name | It's called Happy Paws |
| Who it's for | Dog owners in my town who want to book a groom |
| The pages | Home, services and prices, book a time, contact |
| What people do | Pick a service, choose a day and time, leave their details |
| What it saves | Each booking, so I can see them in a list |
| The look | Friendly and playful, soft blue and yellow |
A booking website for my dog grooming business, called Happy Paws. It's for dog owners in town who want to book a groom. Pages: home, services with prices, book a time, and contact. Customers pick a service, choose a day and time, and leave their name, phone number and dog's name. Save each booking so I can see them in a list that only I can open. Style: friendly and playful, soft blue and yellow, with big clear buttons.
As you type a new app idea (on the home page or your dashboard), Buildliy suggests details it might be missing. Once you've written a few words, up to three Add: chips appear under your text, from Who it's for, Business name, Style and Must-have pages. Click one to add a sentence with a blank in [brackets], then type over the blank. These chips don't use the AI or credits.
Help from the prompt box
- Start with an idea: on the home page, the chips under the box (such as Booking site for my salon) fill in a full example prompt you can edit before sending. More ideas shows the rest.
- Enhance prompt (the wand icon in the new-app box on your dashboard) rewrites a rough idea into a clearer prompt for you to review before sending. It uses a small amount of credits and needs at least one credit to run.
- Very short prompts may get quick picks. If your first prompt has nothing concrete to build from (like "a website" or "make me an app"), Buildliy may ask a few quick picks before it starts: a color palette, a pair of fonts, a homepage layout, or how much the first version should include. Pick an option or type in the Write your own… box, click Next, and click Build on the last pick. Or click Skip all to build straight away from what you wrote, plus any picks you've already made. A prompt that describes your app builds right away.
Example first prompts
An online menu for my café, Bean There, with photos and prices, our opening hours and location, and a simple order-ahead form so customers can choose items and a pickup time. Warm and cozy style: cream background, dark brown text, a terracotta accent color.
A private client portal for my coaching business. Clients sign in to see their upcoming sessions, my notes from past sessions, and their goals. Each client must only ever see their own information. Calm, professional look in navy and white.
A simple shop for my handmade candles that takes card payments. A product catalog, a page for each candle with photos and scent notes, a cart and a checkout. Earthy, natural style with lots of white space.
A task board for my team of five with To do, Doing and Done columns. Each task has a title, an owner and a due date. Everyone signs in and sees the same board. Overdue tasks are highlighted in red.
A one-page launch site for my new budgeting app, Pocketwise: a short explanation, three key benefits with icons, and a waitlist sign-up form that saves email addresses. Bright and modern, white background with a green accent.
Example follow-up edits
Once your app exists, point at the page or element you mean, and say what should change.
On the home page, make the main heading bigger and change it to "Grooming your dog will love". Keep everything else the same.
Add an "About us" page with a short story about the business and a photo placeholder, and link it from the top menu.
On the booking page, only allow times between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday, and don't let two people book the same time.
To point at something exactly, use the arrow icon above the preview to pick an element, or the pin icon to drop notes on several spots at once. See Edit by clicking.
Example design changes
Change the color scheme to a dark background with white text and orange as the main color. Keep the layout the same.
Make the whole site feel more premium: more white space, a more elegant serif font for headings, and softer shadows on the cards.
The site looks crowded on phones. On small screens, stack the three feature cards on top of each other and make the buttons full width.
For one-click palettes, font pairs and presets, and a brand kit for new projects, see Design and themes.
Example prompts for sign-in, data and payments
These change how your app handles people's information or money, so Buildliy may show you a plan or ask for your OK before it makes the change. See Plans, questions and approvals.
Add sign-in so customers can create an account with their email and a password. Signed-in customers see a "My bookings" page with only their own bookings.
Save every message sent through the contact form, and add a page only I can open that lists them, newest first.
Let customers pay a $20 deposit by card when they book. Show a confirmation page after a successful payment.
Card payments start in test mode, so no real money moves until you connect your own Stripe account. Learn more in User sign-in, Database and Take payments.
Example prompts for fixing something
Say what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead.
When I submit the contact form, nothing happens. I expected a "Thanks, we'll be in touch" message and the message saved to the list. Please fix it.
On a phone, the top menu covers the page heading. Make the menu collapse into a menu button on small screens.
You usually don't need to copy error messages. When you send a message, Buildliy also passes along recent errors from your preview. If the preview itself shows This preview hit an error, click Fix it and the AI runs a repair build (it uses credits like any other build). See Fix problems.
When the result isn't right
- Say exactly what's off. "The prices are wrong: a full groom is $60, not $45" works better than "fix the prices".
- Go one step at a time. If a big request came out wrong, undo it and ask for it in smaller pieces.
- Undo freely. Click your project's name and choose Undo last build, or open Build history there to go back to an earlier version. Restoring is free, apart from the small amount of credit your live preview uses while it's running. See Version history.
- Give it a picture. A screenshot, a photo of a sketch or an example you like often explains a layout faster than words. See Add images and files.
- Write down standing rules. If you keep repeating the same instruction ("always use British spelling", "never change the logo"), put it in Workspace → Knowledge so the AI reads it on every build. See Project knowledge.
Add a tested feature from Recipes
Recipes are ready-made, tested requests for common features. Open the + menu in the chat box and choose Add a feature.
The gallery offers twelve recipes: Booking calendar, Newsletter sign-up, Members area, Gift cards, Reviews, FAQ, Contact form, Photo gallery, Events list, Testimonials, Pricing table and Blog. When a recipe brings sign-in, payments or saved data into your app, a chip says so up front: Needs sign-in, Takes payments or Saves data.
Open the gallery
In the chat box, click +, then Add a feature.
Pick a recipe
Click Add next to the feature you want. Every recipe tells the AI to keep your app's existing look and leave unrelated pages alone.
Watch it build
The recipe runs as a normal build, so it uses credits like any other request. The chat shows it as "Add a feature: …". If a build is already running, wait for it to finish first.
Save your own recipes
When a change comes out the way you like, you can save the request behind it and reuse it in any project. Open the ⋯ menu under that reply and choose Save as my recipe, or click Save my last change as a recipe in the gallery. Give it a name and click Save recipe. It appears under My recipes, ready to Add in any project. You can keep up to 50 recipes.
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