Project files and settings

Work with projects in Bolt, including changing settings and managing files.

View, create, edit, or delete projects

View existing projects

View your existing projects by hovering over the left edge of the screen or clicking the Open sidebar icon. This opens the Bolt menu.

Click a project name to open it and continue working.

Create a new project

To create a new Bolt project, submit a new prompt on the Bolt homepage. This will automatically add a new project to your project list. It will autogenerate a project title.

Rename or edit a project title

1. Open the project.
2. Click the project name at the top of your screen.
3. Change the name.
4. Click the checkmark to save the change.

Delete a project

To delete a project, you need to delete both the chat and the associated project in StackBlitz.

Delete a project chat

1. Hover over the left side of the screen or click Open sidebar to view the chat list.
2. Hover over the chat you want to delete.
3. Click Delete.

Delete a project in StackBlitz

1. Log in to your StackBlitz account.
2. CLick Collections.
3. Click Bolt collection.
4. Click the menu icon for the project you want to delete.
5. Click Delete project.

Project settings

You can access Project settings by clicking the gear icon near the top-right of your screen.

There are three parts to Project settings:

• Project General settings
• Project Knowledge
• Project Backups

Project General settings

In this section, you can:

Rename the project

1. Type a new name in the text field.
2. Click Save.

Change the project visibility

Choose one of the following:

• Private – only you can see the project.
• Secret – anyone with the link can see it.
• Public – everyone can see it.

Delete chat history

1. Click the red Delete chat history button.
2. When prompted, click Delete to confirm, or Cancel to keep it.

Project Knowledge

This section allows you to set project-specific additional context to the AI and instructions on how to behave.

For example, you can specify technologies or locations to pull icons or imagery from, like the example below:

For all designs I ask you to make, have them be beautiful, not cookie cutter. Make webpages that are fully featured and worthy for production.

By default, this template supports JSX syntax with Tailwind CSS classes, the shadcn/ui library, React hooks, and Lucide React for icons. Do not install other packages for UI themes, icons, etc unless absolutely necessary or I request them.

Use icons from lucide-react for logos.

Use stock photos from unsplash where appropriate.

Learn more about system and project knowledge in our article on Prompting Effectively.

Project Backups

You can restore your project to an automatically saved backup from the Backups page in Project Settings.

Restore from a backup

1. Click the gear icon near the top-right of your screen to open Project settings.
2. Click Backups.
3. Find the backup with the date and time you want.
4. Click Load next to that backup.
5. In the confirmation window, click Create Fork.

This creates a new version of your project using the backup, without erasing the current version.

Create, edit, and delete files

By default, your Bolt project shows your chat and a preview of the app you’re building. If you want to edit your project files directly, you can switch from Preview to Code view. This is useful if you:

• Know exactly what needs changing, and want to make quick edits yourself rather than asking in Discussion mode.
• Need to troubleshoot.
• Want to explore your code and content.

To work with files in your Bolt project, switch to Code view using the Code Preview toggle. From here, you can open, edit, create, and delete files.

Open a file for editing

1. Click the file in the Files list.
2. Edit the file in the editor.
3. Click Save or press Ctrl+S.
4. Bolt automatically builds your changes.
5. Switch back to Preview mode to see them.

Create a new file

1. Right-click in the Files list.
2. Select New file…

Delete a file

1. Right-click the file you want to delete.
2. Select Delete.

Upload files

You can upload files to Bolt to either add them to your project or use them as reference materials. When you upload, you can tell Bolt how to use the file in your prompt, or let Bolt detect it automatically.

The maximum file size is 9 MB.

Click below to see supported file types:

Supported file types

Images: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .webp .svg

Text files: .pdf .txt .doc .docx .py .ipynb .js .mjs .cjs .jsx .html .css .scss .sass .ts .tsx .java .cs .php .c .cc .cpp .cxx .h .hh .hpp .rs .swift .go .rb .kt .kts .scala .sh .bash .zsh .bat .csv .log .ini .cfg .config .json .yaml .yml .toml .lua .sql .md .tex .latex .asm .ino .s

Bolt can upload file types for a wide range of programming languages. Bolt only builds JavaScript-based applications (see Supported technologies), but you can upload files from other programming languages to guide Bolt, or ask Bolt to convert them into JavaScript.

You can upload files when creating a new project on the Bolt homepage or in an existing project chat.

Upload a file

• Click Upload files in the chatbot and select your files, or
• Drag and drop the file into the chatbox.

For example, you could:

Use a file as a project asset

1. Upload an image file to use as a logo on your website.

2. In your prompt, say: Use the attached file as a logo in the header of the website.

   Bolt adds the file to your project files.

Use a file for design inspiration

1. Upload an image file to show Bolt the look and feel you want.

2. In your prompt, say: Using the attached image for inspiration, change the site’s colors, fonts, and other styles to match the image style.

   Bolt uses the file temporarily but doesn’t permanently add it to your project files.

Download projects and work with them locally

To run the project locally, you’ll need Node.js installed.

Download and run a project on your computer:

1. From the left-side panel, select your project. Then, click Export > Download located at the center top of the page. A .zip of your project will download.

   

2. Unzip the project.

3. Navigate to the project in your terminal and run:

   npm install && npm run dev
   

Duplicate projects

Duplicating your project creates a fresh copy of the project in Bolt. It retains all code and settings, except for GitHub and Netlify integration settings.

Duplicating your project clears your chat history.

To duplicate a project, open it in Bolt, then:

1. Open the menu next to the project name.
2. Click Duplicate.
3. If you have integrations active in the project, Bolt displays a dialog that confirms which integration settings it will copy. Click Duplicate in the dialog to continue.
4. Bolt creates a new copy of the project, with an empty chat history.

If you want information from your chat history to be available in the new project, generate a summary in the old project and upload it in the new project.

Get Bolt to summarize your chat history in your old project:

1. Switch to Discussion Mode: in the Bolt prompt box in your project, click Toggle
2. Prompt the AI: Please generate a short summary of our conversation so far.
3. Check that the AI response is accurate and contains everything you need.
4. Copy the response out of Bolt and save it as a .txt or .md file.

In your new project, add the chat summary:

1. Switch to Discussion Mode: in the Bolt prompt box in your project, click Toggle
2. Click Upload files
3. Provide a prompt such as:
   The attached file is a summary of previous discussion about this project.
   Please use it when working on future changes.
   

4. Press Enter to upload the file and your prompt.

Continue in StackBlitz

If you decide you want to stop working via the Bolt chatbox interface, you can continue working on your project in StackBlitz’s IDE. StackBlitz is Bolt’s parent company, and accounts are automatically linked.

To open your Bolt project in the StackBlitz web IDE:

In your project, click Export > Open in StackBlitz.

Learn more about the StackBlitz IDE in StackBlitz’s documentation.

Open a StackBlitz project in Bolt

There are two ways to open StackBlitz projects in Bolt:

1. Click Open in Bolt located in the upper-left corner of any StackBlitz project screen.
2. Manually enter the following URL pattern in your browser (replacing the all caps slug with your own project slug): https://bolt.new/~/STACKBLITZ_PROJECT_SLUG_HERE

Open a public GitHub project in Bolt

You can open any public GitHub project in Bolt by putting bolt.new in front of the GitHub repository URL.

For example: bolt.new/~/github.com/mantinedev/remix-template.

To connect your GitHub account to Bolt and sync projects, refer to GitHub for version control.