You don't need to be a programmer to change your app. Every Ghosty app comes with starter instructions: a short, ready-made message you give an AI assistant. The assistant does the technical work — you tell it what you want.

What the starter instructions are

The starter instructions tell an AI assistant everything it needs to get set up with your specific app: what the app is, where it lives, and how to work on it the Ghosty way. They're written for the assistant, not for you — you never have to understand what's in them, only pass them along.

You'll find them in two places:

• On the success screen right after you create an app.
• On the app's Overview page, any time — under "Start working on your app".

How to use them

1. Open your app in your AI assistant. If you use Claude Code or Codex, this is one click: press "Open in Claude Code" or "Open in Codex" and your assistant opens with the starter instructions already filled in — nothing is sent until you press enter, so you can read them first.
2. Using another assistant? Copy the instructions. Use the "Copy the instructions" button — it copies the whole thing, tailored to your app — then paste them into Cursor or any other coding assistant as your first message and send it.
3. Tell it what you'd like to build. The assistant will set itself up first — it fetches your app's code and reads the guide inside — and then asks you what to change. From there, just describe what you want in plain language: "add a page that lists our customers", "make the header blue", "let people export to a spreadsheet".

When the assistant finishes a change and publishes it, your app updates on its own — a new version is usually live a few minutes later.

If nothing opens when you click

Clicking an assistant's button when that app isn't installed on your computer does nothing — there's no error, it just doesn't open. That's fine: the click also copied your starter instructions, so you can paste them straight into any assistant you do have. Or install the one you clicked first, then click again.

Don't have an assistant yet?

Any AI coding assistant works. If you're starting from zero, Claude Code is a free download and a good place to start: install it, open it, and paste in your starter instructions.

Tips

• One change at a time. Small, clear requests ("add a search box to the customers page") get better results than big vague ones.
• You can always look first. Ask the assistant to show you a preview of a change before it publishes anything.
• Nothing is precious. If a change isn't what you wanted, tell the assistant to undo it or try a different direction.