Building Apps with AI Forge
Use the AI Forge panel in Studio to build, iterate, and refine your applications through conversation.
Open the Forge Panel
The Forge panel lives in the Studio sidebar. Click it to open the chat interface. When the status dot turns green, Forge is connected and ready.
Describe Your Intent
Type what you want to build in plain language. Forge works best when you describe the outcome, not the implementation.
Good prompts:
- "An inventory manager with products, categories, and stock levels. Products belong to a category. Stock level should be an integer that can't go below zero."
- "Add a notes field to the contacts entity. Notes should be a rich text field."
- "Create a dashboard page that shows total deals by stage as a bar chart."
Less effective prompts:
- "Make an app" -- too vague, Forge has to guess everything.
- "Write a SQL migration to add a column" -- Forge manages the manifest; you don't need raw SQL.
Review the Plan
Before writing any files, Forge presents a plan: which entities it will create, what fields they'll have, what backend logic is needed, and what the frontend will look like. Read through it carefully.
If something looks wrong, reply in the same chat session to correct it. For example:
"The status field should also include a 'blocked' option."
Forge revises the plan before proceeding.
Approve File Diffs
Once the plan is confirmed, Forge generates code and presents file-by-file diffs. Each diff shows exactly what will be added, modified, or removed. You can:
- Accept individual diffs to apply them.
- Reject a diff and ask Forge to revise.
- Accept all to apply everything at once.
Iterate in the Same Session
Forge retains context within a session. After the initial build, keep the conversation going:
- "Add a priority field with values low, medium, high."
- "Make the list view sortable by due date."
- "The delete button should ask for confirmation first."
Each follow-up generates a new set of diffs against the current project state. There's no need to start over.
Tips for Good Prompts
| Tip | Example |
|---|---|
| Be specific about schema | "A projects entity with name (text, required), status (enum: active, archived), and budget (decimal)." |
| State access rules | "Only users with the admin role can delete projects." |
| Describe behavior | "When a deal moves to 'won', automatically set the closed_at date to now." |
| Reference existing entities | "Add a comments entity that belongs to tasks via a foreign key." |
| Keep it incremental | Make small, focused requests rather than rewriting everything in one prompt. |
Further Reading
- Build an Application -- full reference for manifests, backends, and frontends.
- Getting Started -- first launch and your first app.
- Managing Data -- working with entities, fields, and relationships.