Make it real
What happens between pressing the button and having an app you can open, including the questions you are asked and why builds take as long as they do.
Pressing Make it real turns an approved prototype into a working app. This page covers what happens in between, so a long build does not feel like a stalled one.
Sign in and claim
Signing in attaches the prototype to your account. Until then it belongs to whoever holds the link, which is why an anonymous prototype is worth claiming before you invest in it.
If someone else has already claimed the prototype you are working from, you get your own copy rather than editing theirs.
Answer a few questions
You get a short round of questions, deliberately limited to what screens cannot express:
- Do people need accounts, and how do they sign in
- What has to be true about the data, for example "a slot can only be booked once"
- Who can see and change what
You are not asked to re-pick features, screens, or styling. The prototype settled those. If a question feels like something you already answered visually, say so.
The build runs
The build happens on Mistflow's servers in an isolated sandbox. It survives you closing the tab, and progress is restored when you come back.
Roughly what happens:
- Your approved screens are laid into the project directly, so the built app matches the prototype
- The rest is generated: data model, sign-in, navigation, the logic behind each screen
- It gets compiled and checked, with a repair pass when a check fails
- It gets deployed and a preview is prepared
A phone build takes longer than a web build, up to roughly half an hour in the worst case, because there is a lot more to compile.
It gets verified
Before you are handed anything, the build has to prove it works. Compile, boot, match the prototype, and survive a run on a real Android emulator as a brand-new user.
A build that crashes on the emulator does not get to call itself ready. See What gets checked.
Open it
Go to the project's App tab in the dashboard, press Start preview, and open it in Expo Go. Full walkthrough in Preview on your phone.
What you end up with
- The app — an Expo Go preview you open on a real phone
- The web half — a small site for the app, used for links, sign-in redirects, and store compliance
- An owner console — when your app has an operator, as a web surface over the same data
- Built-in operator tools — analytics, a read-only data browser, and user administration for every project, in the dashboard
The web half is your app's website. It is not the app, and it is not where people use the product.
Why a build can fail
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| The app compiled but crashed on boot | Retry. Repeated failures are worth reporting, the crash is captured |
| It drifted from your prototype | It is failed on purpose rather than shipped wrong. Retry |
| Ran out of time | Simplify the app or split the work into two changes |
| Out of build credit | Top up or wait for the monthly refill |
One thing at a time
A project builds or edits one change at a time. Starting a second while one is running is refused with an explanation rather than queued, so two jobs cannot fight over the same source. The same applies if you are also working on the project from an AI editor.