This guide is for people who are new to Bolt, and new to software development. It’s designed to help you plan your project, create a good first , and understand the steps involved in building an application.

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The lifecycle of an application

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Step 1: Design and plan

Before you start building, you need to know what you’re building and why.

Bolt provides multiple ways to add your designs:

Although you can start with an open-ended prompt, such as Hey Bolt, please build a todo list app, you’ll have more success if you design and plan first. Try to come up with answers to the following questions.

What do you want to build?

In general terms, what are you creating? For example: a todo list application, or a portfolio website, or a mobile habit tracker app.

Who is it for?

Your user should be at the center of your design choices. Think about what they need and how they’ll use your application.

What features does it have?

List out the features: the things users can do. For example, if building a todo list app, your feature list might include:

  • Create new todos
  • Edit existing todos
  • Delete todos
  • Schedule the time and date for a todo

What look and feel do you want?

Give Bolt guidance on the aesthetic you want for your application. You can describe it, or attach images for inspiration.

How will users access it?

It’s important to make this decision at the start, so that Bolt can structure your application to work with the platforms you want to deploy to.

Think about the format:

  • Website: the user accesses this in their browser. It’s mostly content and information. For example: blogs, news sites, portfolios, galleries, and so on.
  • Web application: the user access this in their browser. It’s interactive, and the user adds their own data. It’s a tool, not just a content site. For example: Bolt is a web application!
  • Mobile application: the user installs an app on their phone or tablet.

Then you’ll prompt Bolt to build for the format you want:

  • If users will access your application in their browser, the easiest way is to deploy and host with Netlify. Bolt integrates with Netlify, meaning you can make your application live with a click from within Bolt.
  • If you want to build a mobile app, Bolt integrates with Expo, which allows you to build your application once, then package it up for multiple platforms.

An example answer

I want to build a todo list app. It’s for people who love timeblocking and the pomodoro productivty method. Its features should include: adding and scheduling todos, and a pomodoro timer. It should have a modern, clean, but colorful aesthetic. Users should be able to add, edit, and delete todos. Users should be able to schedule the time and date for their todos. Users should be able to view both their unscheduled task list, and a daily schedule with any scheduled tasks. Users will access the application in their browser, so make sure it’s suitable for hosting on Netlify.

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Step 2: Your first prompt

Writing good prompts is key to success with AI tools.

For detailed guidance, there’s a full best practices article on how to prompt effectively. It’s recommended to read this in full. You may also want to check out Intro to LLMs for a quick introduction to AI terminology and concepts.

If you built up answers to the questions above, you can use those as the basis for you first prompt. Before you start, use Bolt to improve your prompt:

  1. Write your prompt in the chatbox.
  2. Click Enhance prompt Star icon. Bolt generates a recommended prompt, which you can then edit.

For example, taking the example answer from the previous section and enhancing it generates a much longer, more detailed prompt.

Once you enhance your prompt, read through the new prompt to make sure it still does what you want.

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Step 3: Iterate

After Bolt generates your application from your first prompt, you’ll probably want to make changes:

  • Adding more features.
  • Tweaking behavior or appearance.
  • Fixing bugs.

Do one thing at a time. Don’t try to add multiple features in one go. Remember the guidance in prompt effectively.

Read the guides to working in Bolt for help using Bolt’s interface.

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Step 4: Deploy

After building your application, the next step is to make it available to users. This is where deployment and hosting comes in.

Bolt doesn’t have built-in hosting for your projects. You can choose to:

  • Use Bolt’s Netlify integration: this connects Bolt to Netlify, enabling one-click deployments from within Bolt. Follow the Netlify integration guide to set this up and to learn more about building for Netlify.
  • For mobile applications, build with Expo and deploy to the app stores. Follow the Expo integration guide.
  • Connect to GitHub and set up deployments from GitHub using other CI/CD tools: this is a common devops pattern. The GitHub integration guide walks you through connecting Bolt and GitHub. You’ll then need to set up your own build and deployment tools.
  • Download your project, and use any deployment option you prefer.

If you’re new to building applications and not sure what option to choose, Bolt’s connection to Netlify is the quickest to set up.