Replit

Learn about Replit Agent, an advanced AI-coding agent that’s capable of building apps from scratch. Through natural language interactions and real-time assistance, Replit Agent sets up environments, writes code, and deploys apps, all done within minutes.

Have you ever put aside a side project for months and completely forgotten about it? Have you ever needed to quickly create a fully functional MVP to validate a SaaS product idea? With so many steps involved in developing and sharing an application, from coding the application logic to provisioning cloud infrastructure, there is a lot of work that developers need to tackle before getting their ideas in front of prospective users. Thankfully, the recent rise of AI-powered tools is upending the traditional process of creating an application by streamlining and automating many of these tedious steps. This lets you focus on what truly matters - bringing your unique vision to life and solving users’ problems.

 (e.g., Continue) that augment existing IDEs with intelligent code autocompletion and ChatGPT-like capabilities. These tools allow developers to describe the code they want via a written prompt, and the underlying LLM instantly generates code that matches the developer’s intent. While such tools help developers save time on writing code, developers still need to set up and configure an array of cloud infrastructure resources, from containers to databases, in order to deploy their applications.  

Enter agentic AI-powered tools. Unlike most copilot coding assistants, 

 automate the entire development workflow. From a single prompt, and access to a variety of tools, an AI coding agent can come up with a sequence of actions that it must perform to fulfill the prompt. For each action, the AI coding agent can choose the appropriate tools to successfully carry out the action. For example, if the underlying LLM of an AI agent determines that the prompt requires an image generation step, then to fulfill that step, the LLM will select and invoke a tool that’s responsible for calling OpenAI’s DALL·E to create images.

Let's explore how one such agent, Replit Agent, that’s capable of building and deploying entire applications from a single prompt.

 is an AI coding agent that’s integrated into Replit’s development environment. Simply describe what you want built, and Replit Agent leverage Replit's extensive feature set (e.g., its package manager, database integration tools, and deployment pipeline) to build and deploy a full-stack web application in minutes. 

All of this happens from the convenience of your browser or Replit’s mobile app (available on iOS and Android). Due to its relative ease of use and integration with Replit's robust development toolkit, Replit Agent makes application development accessible to everyone, regardless of skill level. The agent can even leverage Replit's educational features, providing inline documentation and explanations of the code that’s generated, making Replit Agent an excellent learning tool for developers.

Replit Agent understands and can handle all phases of the software development lifecycle. After receiving a prompt, Replit Agent:

The effectiveness of Replit Agent's output depends on how clearly you can communicate your technical requirements. The more specific you can be about programming concepts, tools, and terminology, the better it can understand and implement your idea. For example, suppose you have a specific UI design in mind for your application. You tell Replit Agent that you want a “minimalist, modern design” for your application. While this gives a general direction, being more specific, like requesting “a clean interface with a monochromatic color scheme, subtle shadows, ample white space, and components from the Tailwind UI library,” helps Replit Agent generate code that more closely matches your vision and reduces the need for subsequent revisions.

Try to leave nothing open for interpretation. For example, you tell Replit Agent that you want your bookmarking application to “store data.” However, where should it store data? In a PostgreSQL database? In 

. During the early access phase, Replit Agent is experimental, so it tries its best to understand your requirements and generate working code, but may occasionally produce unexpected results or require additional guidance to achieve the exact functionality you're looking for.

Every pricing plan offers free Replit Agent access. However, the level of access varies depending on the pricing plan that you choose. Replit offers four pricing plans:

The level of access to Replit Agent is tied to:

For an in-depth chart that compares plans, please visit 

To get access to Replit Agent, you will need a Replit account. If you don’t already have a Replit account, then sign up for a Replit account, answer several questions from the onboarding wizard, and verify your e-mail address. If you are new to Replit, then you should select the 

 plan (free tier plan). If you have available funds, and you plan on building more sophisticated applications, then you should select the 

Don’t worry if you initially chose the Starter plan over the Core plan. You can upgrade to the Core plan at anytime!

Once your e-mail address has been verified, you will have access to the prompt textarea field and start building with Replit Agent. Additionally, at the bottom of the left navigation sidebar of the Replit dashboard, you will notice a small section that displays your account’s plan and quota information. For the Starter plan, this includes the number of free, public applications that you have created and the number of Replit Agent checkpoints already consumed. If you happen to consume all 10 free checkpoints, then you will no longer be able to use Replit Agent unless you either:

How do you create an application with Replit Agent?

Log in to your Replit account. If you don’t have an account yet, then you can create one for free at 

. Replit offers multiple sign-in options, including Google, GitHub, and email-based authentication.

II. Visit the home page (replit.com), or click the “+ Create App” button in the left navigation sidebar (replit.com/new).

. In the Replit dashboard, at the center of the home view’s main content area, there is a large textarea field that lets you enter a description of the application that you want to create. Below the large textarea are several buttons that, when clicked, will prefill the textarea field with a curated prompt. For example, clicking on the “AI chat” button will prefill the textarea field with the prompt “Make an AI chat application using OpenAI. Let the user enter their username when they join for the first time.”  

 button in the left navigation sidebar, which will redirect you to the 

. This page also features a large textarea field that lets you enter a description of the application that you want to create. However, there are many more buttons with prompt suggestions to help you get started with Replit Agent. You can hover over each button to preview the prompt that it will insert into the textarea field. Along with buttons with prompt suggestions, there are also buttons with integration suggestions. Clicking any one of these buttons will insert extra text that describes the integration you want added to your application into the textarea field. For example, clicking on the button “Firebase login” will add the text “Add authentication for users using Firebase.” Ideally, you should add these texts after the initial prompt that describes what you want built.

III. Type and enter a prompt that describes the application and its features.

To start building an application with Replit Agent, simply enter a clear and concise prompt describing what you want to create. This step is crucial because the quality of the prompt directly affects the output generated by the AI. A well-structured prompt should include details about the application's purpose, key features, and any specific technologies or frameworks you want to use.

For example, if you want to develop a RAG application that allows you to ask questions about the contents of a YouTube video, then you might input:

"Using Tailwind CSS, React.js, OpenAI, and LangChain.js, create a web application that allows the user to ask questions about content from a YouTube video."

This level of detail helps Replit Agent know which libraries and frameworks it should use to create the application. The more details you provide about the application, the more accurate and functional the initial version of the application will be. Remember, if the prompt is too vague, then Replit Agent may produce an incomplete or generic web application that requires extensive manual adjustments.

However, if you don’t specify any libraries, frameworks or tools, then Replit Agent will decide which technology stack best suits your project.

If you want to view or modify the code that’s generated by Replit Agent, then open the file explorer by clicking on the button (with the folder icon) below the home button in the left sidebar. From the file explorer, you can download the project’s source code by clicking on the menu button (with the vertical, triple ellipsis icon), followed by clicking on the “Download as zip” button in the opened dropdown.  

IV. Iteratively improve the application by giving detailed feedback to Replit Agent.

Once the initial version of the application is generated, you can refine it by providing feedback. Iterative development is one of Replit Agent’s strongest capabilities, allowing users to tweak their applications without having to directly interact with any project code. By giving precise, structured feedback, you can guide the AI to make specific improvements and enhancements.

For example, if you want the RAG application to provide timestamp references to its responses, then you can specify:

Replit Agent will adjust the application accordingly, ensuring that the final version aligns more closely with your vision. This process can be repeated as many times as needed until the desired result is achieved.

Moreover, this iterative approach is beneficial for debugging and optimization. If an application has performance issues, then you can instruct Replit Agent to optimize for performance (e.g., algorithmic improvements, faster page loading times, etc.) or fix specific errors.

Try creating your first web application with Replit Agent. Feel free to share it in the comments section of this post!

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