Chatting

Chatting with AI (aka "prompting") is more of an art than a science, but here are a few tips to help you get more out of chatting with AI in Dyad.

Use multiple chats

Unlike most other AI app builders, Dyad allows you to create multiple chats (conversations) for the same app which gives you better control over the context.

From a current chat for an app, you can create a new chat, which will create a clean context for the same app. This is helpful, for example, if your previous chat with the AI went off the rails or started going in circles.

Because all chats for a specific app are working on the same codebase, then the versions are shared.

Detailed first prompts

Be as specific as you can, particularly with the first prompt in building an app. This will help the AI understand what you're looking for rather than guessing.

Bad prompt: (too vague)

Build an AI food scanner app.

Good prompt: (specific user flows)

Build an AI food scanner app. It should have a welcome screen which is a carousel with a few different sections, each section should contain an image and a text explaining the benefit of the app. In the main screen, the user can upload an image which is sent to an AI which will predict what food it is and the number of calories and the user can confirm.

Writing a good prompt takes effort, but it'll save you a lot of trouble because you'll get what you want.

Review the change

Even if you're not familiar with the code Dyad is generating, it should summarize the changes it's making to each file, as well as the overall update.

Make sure these changes match your expectations. Sometimes Dyad may do too much—making changes you didn't request at all. If you're asking for a small tweak and it starts modifying several files, something likely went wrong and you should undo the change.

Other times, Dyad might do too little—describing the changes it intends to make without actually implementing them. For instance, if no code is generated, you may need to give it a nudge by saying something like, "Keep going."

What's next

I highly recommend reading the Debugging guide to get tips on debugging with AI.