Building with Exepad

Building with Exepad is a back-and-forth, not a one-shot. You describe what you want, look at what comes back, and refine it — the same rhythm you’d use working with a designer. Understanding that rhythm is the difference between fighting the tool and flying with it.

The loop

Every app — new or years old — is shaped through the same short loop:

1. Describe — say what you want in plain language.
2. Review — Exepad builds it and shows you a working preview.
3. Refine — ask for a change; the preview updates.
4. Repeat until it’s right.

The first description creates the app. Every message after that changes it. There’s no separate “editing mode” to learn — it’s all one conversation.

Start broad, then sharpen

Your first description sets the shape of the whole app, so paint the big picture: what the app is for, the main things people do in it, and what it needs to remember.

“A booking site for a hair salon. Visitors pick a service, choose a time slot, and leave their name and phone number. I can see all bookings on an admin page.”

From there, your follow-up messages sharpen the details — one at a time:

• “Add a photo and a price to each service.”
• “Send me an email when someone books.”
• “Make the admin page sortable by date.”

Broad first, precise after. Trying to specify every detail in the opening message tends to work less well than letting the app take shape and then guiding it.

Talk about outcomes, not mechanics

Exepad handles how things are built — you focus on what you want to happen. Describe the result you’re picturing:

Instead of	Say
“Add a field for priority”	“Let me track each task’s priority”
“Set up a new page URL”	“Add a page where people can contact us”
“Connect the form to storage”	“Save each sign-up so I can see them later”

You never have to think about how it works underneath — just describe the experience you want your visitors to have.

One idea per message

“Add a search box that filters the list as I type” lands cleanly. A paragraph asking for five unrelated changes at once is harder to get right — and harder for you to review. Change one thing, check it, move on.

When something’s not right

If a change doesn’t come out the way you imagined, don’t start over — just say what’s off:

• “That’s close, but make the buttons bigger and move them to the right.”
• “The list should show the newest items first, not oldest.”
• “Undo that last change — I preferred the previous layout.”

Exepad keeps a history of your app, so you can always refine forward or step back to an earlier version. See Version history.

Where to go next

• Describing your app — write first descriptions that land close on the first try.
• Editing by chatting — the art of the follow-up request.
• What you can build — the range of apps Exepad is a fit for, and where it isn’t.