Don't stop here
Hand-picked guides our readers explore right after this one.
Stunning image generation with Midjourney prompt mastery
Read the guideExpert guide to Claude prompts with XML tags, artifacts, and complex reasoning
Read the guideMaster the 8-step framework for writing prompts that get results
Read the guideBolt.new lets you describe an app and watch it get built in real time. Full stack, live preview, instant deploy. No environment setup, no package installs, no terminal. Just describe what you want and ship it.
Two years into the AI app builder era, the category has stratified. There are full IDEs with AI baked in (Cursor, Windsurf, Zed), component generators (v0 by Vercel), full app builders (Lovable, Replit Agent, Bolt.new), and the no code survivors (Bubble, Softr) that bolted on AI. Bolt.new sits firmly in the full app builder lane, and in 2026 it is the fastest way to go from a three sentence idea to a deployable URL.
The reason Bolt persists when Lovable and Replit Agent are pushing hard is its developer ergonomics. The generated code looks like something a senior engineer would write, the file structure is clean, the stack choices default to whatever is current in the ecosystem, and the export path to GitHub and Vercel is frictionless. Founders who try Lovable first often migrate mid project to Bolt because the code is easier to hand to a contractor later.
The flip side is that Bolt has never been as opinionated as Lovable about product structure. Lovable will push you toward a SaaS pattern with auth, billing, and a dashboard. Bolt will cheerfully build whatever weird thing you ask for, which is a feature if you know what you want and a trap if you do not. The prompts in this guide exist to solve that trap by giving you starting points that are specific, complete, and designed to produce shippable output on the first run.
If you are brand new to AI coding tools, start with our overview of AI coding prompts and our comparison of AI tools for developers. If you already know Bolt and want to sharpen your prompt craft, keep reading.
Prompt quality drives output quality more than any other variable. These five rules are the difference between a working app on the first try and three wasted runs.
Tell Bolt exactly what framework you want: React, Next.js, Astro, Vue, Svelte. Do not leave it to guess or it will sometimes pick wrong and you will burn tokens undoing the choice.
Say what the app does and what the user experience looks like at the end. Bolt builds better when it understands the finished product, not just a list of features in isolation.
Mention colors, style (minimal, glassmorphism, dark mode), reference sites (linear.app, stripe.com), and any UI library you want (Tailwind, shadcn, Radix).
If you need Stripe, Supabase, Clerk, Resend, or a REST API, say so upfront. Adding these later is messier and more expensive in tokens than specifying from the start.
Tell Bolt what NOT to build. Phrases like 'no backend needed', 'skip auth for now', 'keep it a single page' prevent Bolt from over engineering and save context for what matters.
Copy these into Bolt.new to build full working apps from scratch. Each prompt is engineered to give Bolt enough detail to produce a usable first run without follow up fixes.
Build a SaaS landing page using React and Tailwind CSS. The product is called "Flowly", an AI powered project management tool. Include: a hero section with headline, subheadline, and email waitlist signup form, a features section with 3 feature cards (icons plus title plus description), a social proof section with 3 fake testimonials, and a footer. Dark theme with purple accent (#7C3AED). Make the waitlist form functional by storing submissions in local state and showing a success message. No backend needed.
Create a personal portfolio website using Next.js and Tailwind. Include: a sticky header with nav links (About, Work, Contact), a hero section with name, title, and a short bio, a projects section showing 3 project cards with title, description, tech stack tags, and a "View" button, an about section, and a contact form. Dark and light mode toggle in the header. Minimal, modern design, think linear.app aesthetic. Smooth scroll animations on section entry. No backend needed.
Build a task manager app using React and Tailwind. Features: add tasks with a title and optional due date, mark tasks complete (strikethrough plus move to completed section), delete tasks, filter by All / Active / Completed, and a progress bar showing percent complete. Persist all data in localStorage so it survives page refresh. Clean dark UI. No backend, no auth needed.
Create an invoice generator app with React. The user should be able to: fill in their business name and info, add a client name and address, add line items (description, quantity, unit price, auto calculate totals), set payment terms and due date, and preview the invoice in a clean professional layout. Add a "Download PDF" button that exports the invoice. Use Tailwind for styling. White and professional design.
Build a two sided marketplace for freelance editors, called "Cutly". Use Next.js 14, Tailwind, and Supabase. Pages: landing page with hero and how it works, a browse editors page with filter by niche and price, an editor profile page with portfolio samples and a "Request Quote" button, a sign up flow with two roles (client, editor), and a dashboard for each role. Use Supabase for auth and a profiles table. Dark theme, purple accent (#7C3AED). Do not build the payment flow yet.
Build an AI writing assistant using Next.js 14 and the OpenAI API. The UI: a single page with a large textarea for the draft, a sidebar with 6 prompt templates (rewrite, shorten, expand, change tone, translate, summarize), and a streaming output pane on the right. Clicking a template sends the current draft plus that instruction to GPT 4 and streams the response back. Use server side streaming via the ai-sdk library. Dark theme. No login required, my OpenAI key will be in .env.local as OPENAI_API_KEY.
Once your base app is built, use these prompts to add functionality. Be specific about where to add it and what the integration pattern should be.
Add Stripe Checkout to this app. When the user clicks the "Upgrade" button, it should: create a Stripe Checkout session for the $19 per month "Pro" plan (product ID: [your ID]), redirect the user to the Stripe hosted checkout page, and after successful payment redirect back to /success with a confirmation message. Use Stripe test mode keys from environment variables. I will replace with live keys before launch.
Add user authentication to this app using Supabase Auth. Implement: a login page with email and password plus Google OAuth, a sign up page, protected routes that redirect to login if not authenticated, a user session stored in context, and a logout button in the header. Use the Supabase JS client. My Supabase project URL is [URL] and anon key is [key]. Add an RLS policy so users can only read their own rows in the tasks table.
Add a data dashboard page to this app at /dashboard. Show the following charts using Recharts: a line chart showing daily signups for the last 30 days, a bar chart showing revenue by month, and a pie chart showing users by plan (Free / Pro / Enterprise). Use the following sample data structure: [paste JSON]. Dark card design matching the existing app.
Add transactional email using Resend. Send three emails: a welcome email when a user signs up, a password reset email, and a weekly digest every Sunday at 9am UTC. Each email should use a React Email template with our brand colors (#7C3AED). Trigger the welcome email from the auth webhook, the reset email from the forgot password form, and the digest email from a Vercel Cron job. Put the RESEND_API_KEY in environment variables.
When something breaks, use these templates. Specificity in the bug description is the single biggest factor in whether Bolt fixes it on the first try.
This component is not rendering correctly. Here is the code: [paste code]. The issue is [describe the problem]. Find the bug and fix it. Explain what was wrong in one sentence.
The mobile layout is broken on screens under 768px. The [section name] overlaps with the navbar and the cards stack incorrectly. Fix the responsive CSS and Tailwind classes. Do not change the desktop layout.
Add proper error handling to all API calls in this file: [paste file]. Show a user friendly error message in the UI (not just console.log) if an API call fails. Use a toast notification or inline error message.
Review this component for accessibility issues: [paste code]. Add proper aria labels, keyboard navigation support, focus visible states, and ensure color contrast meets WCAG AA standards. List each change you made and why.
This page loads slowly. Run a mental audit of the component tree at [path]. Identify unnecessary re renders, unmemoized computations, and any client components that could be server components. Apply the fixes and explain each change.
This app is going to production. Add input validation on all form submissions using zod, add error boundaries around each route, and move all hardcoded secrets to environment variables. List each file you touched.
All five tools use AI to accelerate coding. They solve different problems and the right choice depends on where you are in the build cycle.
Starting a new app from scratch in the browser. Fast prototyping with instant deploy. Best for non developers and founders who want a working URL in one session.
Developers who want AI assistance while coding in a full IDE. Best for complex existing codebases, refactoring, and production grade work.
Non technical founders building SaaS products with opinionated structure. Similar to Bolt but with deeper Supabase integration and stronger product design defaults.
Generating React and Next.js UI components and landing pages. Best for developers who want polished, production ready component code in isolation.
Codeium's agentic IDE. Best for developers who want an agent that can plan and execute multi file changes across a real repository.
Browser based full stack environment similar to Bolt, stronger on Python and long running processes. Best for data apps and scripts.
Teams that ship with Bolt tend to follow the same loop. Day one is the Bolt session, where you use the starter prompts in this guide to get a working URL live on Netlify. Day two is the GitHub export, where you push the codebase to a repository, set up Vercel or another production host, and move every hardcoded secret into environment variables. Day three is the hardening pass where you add input validation with zod, error boundaries on every route, and basic analytics with Plausible or PostHog.
From day four onward, most teams stop using Bolt for day to day work and switch to Cursor or Windsurf on the exported repo. This is because Bolt is optimized for greenfield generation, not for iterating on an existing codebase with real constraints. The IDEs with AI baked in are faster once you know the shape of the code you are editing.
The exception is UI work. When you need a new landing page, a marketing site, or a standalone dashboard, come back to Bolt. The speed advantage for net new surfaces still beats writing the boilerplate by hand even if you have a full IDE open. A common pattern is using v0 for individual components, Bolt for full new pages, and Cursor for editing the application logic that ties everything together.
For teams exploring vibe coding workflows where a single founder ships daily without a formal engineering process, Bolt plus Cursor plus a GitHub repo with Vercel preview deploys is the modal 2026 stack. Two subscriptions, one repo, and a lot of deploys.
The IDE prompt library for developers shipping production code.
Prompts for Lovable, the opinionated SaaS builder.
Generate polished React components and landing pages.
Codeium's agentic IDE prompt playbook.
Full stack in the browser, stronger on Python workloads.
The solo founder workflow for shipping daily with AI.
The full landscape of AI coding tools in 2026.
The top of the cluster for AI assisted development.
Build your own prompt templates for every tool.
Explore our guides for Cursor, v0, Windsurf, Lovable, Replit, and every major AI dev tool.
Browse All Guides