Quickstart: idea to live URL
Go from signing in to a working app on a public URL in six steps. Do this once and you will have a real Next.js app, a database, a preview, and a live address you can share.
Sign in
Sign-up is open — no invite needed.
- Go to the sign-in page and click Sign in with GitHub.
- Approve the permission prompt. We use the email from your provider to identify your account.
GitHub is the only provider available right now.
Create a project
The first time you sign in, a welcome dialog asks you to pick a starting scaffold. You can also start any time from New project on your projects page.
There are four scaffolds:
| Scaffold | What you get | Database |
|---|---|---|
| Blank Next.js | Minimal Next.js with Tailwind | Optional |
| Todo CRUD | Todo app with Prisma, server actions, working UI | Required |
| Landing Marketing | Hero, three features, a CTA | None |
| Dashboard Authenticated | Sidebar, topbar, stat cards (auth is a stub) | Required |
In the New project dialog:
- Give it a Name. Description (optional) labels the project on your projects page.
- Pick a Scenario. Scaffolds that need data select PostgreSQL for you.
- Pick a Database — No database, PostgreSQL, or MySQL.
- Click Create project.
The database choice is locked at create time and cannot be changed later. If you pick wrong, create a new project.
Every project is a fullstack Next.js app: web pages, an API, and a database in one git repository. You can add a mobile app (Expo) to the same repository later from the Mobile tab.
Write your first prompt
You land in the workspace: chat on the left, preview in the middle, code on the right.
- Type what you want in the composer. Be concrete — name the pages, the fields, the behaviour.
- Click Generate, or press Cmd / Ctrl + Enter.
A good first prompt looks like this:
Add a /contact page with a form (name, email, message).
Save submissions to the database and show a success message.
Two toggles sit next to the composer. Ask first makes the AI ask two or three questions before it writes anything — useful when your prompt covers a lot of ground. Design first makes it draft UI mockups you approve before any code is written.
Watch the AI work
The prompt appears in the chat with a status: Queued, then Running, then Done. Under it you get a live activity list — the files being read, written, and changed.
A cost chip shows ≈1.00 cr… while the run holds a credit, then settles to what the run actually cost. A typical single-change prompt is around 1 credit.
The first run in a new project is slower than the ones after it: the build environment has to start up and install dependencies.
If the status reads Build issues instead of Done, the code was saved but something the platform checked did not pass. Send a follow-up prompt describing the problem — an ordinary run has no retry button for that state. (A step inside a plan does: see Plans for big prompts.)
Check the preview
The center panel runs your app as a private dev server.
- Click Start preview.
- Watch the badge move from Idle to Starting… to Ready. The first start usually takes 30 to 60 seconds.
After that the preview reloads itself each time a run finishes, so you can keep prompting and watch the app change.
The preview is private to you — it is not the public URL, and it stops on its own after roughly ten minutes of inactivity. Start it again whenever you need it.
Publish
- Click Publish in the project header.
- Add environment variables if your app needs them. They are encrypted at rest and applied on the next deploy.
- Click Publish in the dialog.
The status moves Pending → Building… → Deploying… → Live, and your app is served from its production URL: https://<slug>.poleved.app. Copy it from the same panel.
The first build is a cold one and can take several minutes; later builds are much faster.
What to try next
- Ask for a bigger feature and let the AI propose a plan you approve step by step.
- Turn on Design first to approve mockups before code.
- Add a mobile app to the same project and open it on your phone.
- Replay the four-step in-app tour any time: user menu → Restart tutorial.
Limits & notes
- The free plan includes 150 credits per month. Runs are metered from the tokens they actually use, so the figures on screen are real costs, not fixed prices. A single run is capped at 25 credits.
- Retrying a run is a new execution and is charged again.
- The workspace needs a screen at least 1080px wide. On a narrow screen you get a notice instead of the three-panel layout.
- The preview and a default deploy use the same project database. Test data you create in the preview will be visible on your live URL unless you point production at a different database.
- Build and deploy times depend on what your app pulls in; the first publish is the slowest one you will see.
Related
- Working with the AI — writing prompts that land.
- How credits work — what a run costs and why.
- Publish & deploy — env vars, history, rollback.
- Creating & managing projects — scaffolds, databases, renaming.