Interacting with Bolt

This page covers common tasks in Bolt and highlights key parts of the interface (often called the user interface, or UI). For tips on using Bolt effectively, check out our Best practices guides.

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View a list of your projects

Once you’re logged in to Bolt, you can see all your projects in one place, making it easy to switch between them. To view your projects, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Bolt.
2. Go to the bolt.new homepage.
3. Hover over over the left side of the screen to open the menu.
4. View a list of your projects under Your Chats.
5. Click a project name to open that project in Bolt.

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Change between Discussion and Build modes

When talking with Bolt in your project, you can switch between two modes:

• Build Mode: Bolt takes your prompt and makes changes to your files immediately.
• Discussion Mode: talk with Bolt, without it making changes. This is useful if you want to discuss ideas, plan work, or troubleshoot, without using a large amount of tokens. Refer to Discussion mode for more information on this feature.

To switch between modes: In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Discussion Mode.

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Search the Help Center from the chatbox

You can search the entire Bolt Help Center without leaving your project by following these steps:

1. In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Search Help Center.
2. Enter your keywords, and a list of articles will appear.
3. Click any topic to open it in a new tab.

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Add files to inform Bolt

You can give Bolt extra information by uploading files. You can upload files when creating a new project on the Bolt homepage, or in an existing project in your chat. To upload a file, either:

• In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Attach a file.
• Drag and drop the file into the chatbox.

Supported file types

Images: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .webp .svgText files: .pdf .txt .doc .docx .py .ipynb .js .mjs .cjs .jsx .html .css .scss .sass .ts .tsx .java .cs .php .c .cc .cpp .cxx .h .hh .hpp .rs .swift .go .rb .kt .kts .scala .sh .bash .zsh .bat .csv .log .ini .cfg .config .json .yaml .yml .toml .lua .sql .md .tex .latex .asm .ino .sBolt can upload file types for a wide range of programming languages. Bolt only builds JavaScript-based applications (see Supported technologies), but you can upload files from other programming languages to guide Bolt, or ask Bolt to convert them into JavaScript.

For example, you can:

• Add an image as an example of the look and feel you want.
• Work on defining your product features with your team in a separate document, then upload it to Bolt.

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Personal settings

You can personalize the Bolt interface through your Personal settings. This includes:

• Switching between light and dark themes using the theme dropdown
• Turning sound notifications on or off when Bolt finishes responding
• Showing or hiding token usage in chat
• Enabling or disabling line wrapping for long lines of code in the editor

To update your personal settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Bolt and open the bolt.new homepage.
2. Hover over the left side of the screen, then click Settings.
3. Set your desired personal settings using the drop-down theme menu and the toggle switches, as shown in the example screenshot below:

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Delete chat history

In the Personal settings window, you can also delete your messaging history across all projects. To do so, click Delete chat history, then confirm by selecting Delete all.

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Automatically improve your prompts

Bolt helps you craft better prompts, which are key to building successfully.

1. Write your prompt in the chatbox.
2. In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Enhance prompt .
3. Bolt generates a recommended prompt, which you can then edit.

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Prompt library

The prompt library is a collection of prompts. It contains prompts provided by Bolt and custom prompts you’ve created and saved. Instead of typing out the same prompt over and over again that you like to use in your projects, you can simply choose it from the list. Using a pre-written prompt saves time and allows you to save and reuse good prompts. You can access the prompt library either in the chatbox on the homepage or in your projects.

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Use an existing prompt

In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Open Prompt Library. Browse through the list of available prompts. Prompts are organized into categories like “SEO” and “Usability”. There are also two special categories: “Favorites” and “Commands”. When you select a prompt, you will see a preview of the prompt. To use the selected prompt, click it again, or press Enter. This will populate the chatbox with the content of the prompt. You can then use it as is or edit it like any other prompt that you would write on your own. If you already know the prompt that you want to use, start typing it and Bolt will automatically show all prompts with matching names. e.g., typing “dar” will bring up Bolt’s dark mode implementation prompt. Click Use prompt or press Enter. Bolt adds the prompt to the chatbox.

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Add a prompt

In the chatbox, start typing /create prompt. Click the blue Create prompt text that appears. Fill in the following:

• Choose a category, or create a new one from the dropdown.
• Select an icon.
• Name your prompt.
• Write the prompt in the prompt field.
• Click Create prompt to save it.

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Manage a prompt

You can favorite any prompt (both built-in and custom). This adds it to the top of the list.

1. In the bottom-left corner of the chatbox, click the plus icon, then click Open Prompt Library.
2. Locate the prompt you want to manage and click on it.
3. Click the three-dot menu.
4. Choose the action:
   • Toggle favorite: Adds the prompt to favorites, and it is now at the top of the list. Alternatively, click the star icon next to the prompt to add it to your favorites. Repeat the same if you want to remove a certain prompt from favorites.
   • Edit (custom prompts only): Opens the prompt for you to make changes.
   • Delete (custom prompts only): Deletes the prompt from the library.

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Guide Bolt’s focus

You’ll get more accurate results if you’re explicit about what Bolt should and shouldn’t change.

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Limit Bolt to specific files

1. Open a Bolt project.
2. Click the code icon (<>) in the top center of your screen to switch to Code view.
3. Right-click the files you want to focus on.
4. Click Target file.

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Exclude specific files or directories

1. Open a Bolt project.
2. Click the code icon (<>) in the top center of your screen to switch to Code view.
3. Right-click the files or directories you want to exclude.
4. Click Lock file (single file) or Lock all (directory).

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Focus on a specific code section

1. Open a Bolt project.
2. Click the code icon (<>) in the top center of your screen to switch to Code view.
3. Highlight the code you want to discuss or change.
4. Click the Ask Bolt button (if the button doesn’t appear immediately, try right-clicking). Bolt links the selection in the prompt box.
5. Enter your question or request.

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Focus on a specific UI element

1. In Preview view, click the Inspector icon in the top center of your screen.
2. Click the element you want to focus on.
3. Bolt links the selection in the prompt box.
4. Enter your prompt.

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Clean up unused files

Cleaning up unused files reduces the size of the context window, which means you use fewer tokens. Bolt uses a tool called Knip to perform a cleanup. You can run this when prompted by Bolt, or run it manually at any time. Before proceeding, back up your project using one or both of these methods:

• In the top left of your screen, click the project title, then click Export > Download, or
• In the top left of your screen, click the project title, then click Duplicate.

Automatic cleanup when prompted If your Bolt project exceeds the context window (200k tokens for free accounts, 500k for paid accounts), Bolt notifies you in the chat, saying Project size exceeded. Click Remove unused files to run the cleanup. Manually run the cleanup In the Bolt terminal run the following command: npx knip --production --fix --allow-remove-files Check the output in the terminal to see if the command ran successfully. This command removes unnecessary files from the codebase, which reduces the project size.

Open the Bolt terminal

1. Log in to your project.
2. Click the code icon (<>) in the top center of your screen to switch to Code view.
3. Scroll down to the bottom, then click Terminal.