Rork can design your app before it writes code, write a plan before it changes files, or build straight away. This page explains the three paths, where the switches are, and what each one costs.
Rork has three ways to answer a message. It can design the screens first, plan the work first, or build the change straight away. Every path ends in the same place, a working app, but they cost different amounts and give you different moments to change your mind.
On rork.com, open the + button under the prompt box. Plan mode and Design mode sit in that menu.
The + menu on the prompt box holds Plan mode and Design mode.
The two switches are exclusive. Turning one on turns the other off.
The Design mode switch belongs to paid plans. On the free plan Rork still designs your app first, and pressing Build on the design asks you to pick a plan. The paywall says it plainly: “Free credits cover design — building your app needs a plan.” See Plans & Subscriptions.
Inside a project the composer has a Plan button instead. Its tooltip reads Enable plan mode. There is no Design switch inside a project, because Design mode belongs to the start of an app.
The Plan button in a project. It is on here, so the next message produces a plan instead of code.
Design mode is the cheap way to decide how your app looks. Rork draws the screens, and nothing is built until you approve them.
1
Answer a few questions about the look
Rork asks a few short questions before it draws anything, usually one to three, sometimes a follow-up. Most answers come with a small preview of the style they stand for, so you pick a look rather than describe one. Every question also offers Surprise me and an Other… box for your own words. Press Submit when you are done.
2
Read the proposal
Rork proposes three or four screens and opens them in the Design tab. This is a picture of your app, not a running app.
3
Change your mind, for very little
Ask for a different screen, a different palette, or a different layout in chat. Changing a design costs far less than rebuilding a working app.
4
Press Build
The Review Design card sits at the bottom of the chat. View Design reopens the screens and Build turns them into a working app.
The Review Design card. After the build it keeps View Design and marks itself Built.
Build sends one message for you: Build a working app from the approved design. Rork then writes the app and saves the design decisions to .rork/DESIGN.md, so later messages keep the same look. You can read that file in More → Code.After the build, the proposal does not disappear. Find it again in More → Design.
Write the look into your first prompt and Rork has less to ask. “A dark, smoky roastery site with big photo cards” answers most of the questions before Rork asks them.
Plan mode is for the changes that are too big to hand over blind. Rork writes down what it intends to do, and it changes no files until you agree.Turn Plan on in the composer, then send your message. Rork writes a plan file under .rork/plans/ and shows a Review Plan card in chat:
View Plan opens the plan in the Plan tab.
Build starts the work. It sends Build the plan. and turns Plan mode off.
Rork can also ask for Plan mode itself when a request looks large. The card reads Switch to Plan Mode? with Approve and Decline. Declining keeps it building the normal way.Plan mode has no separate price. It uses the same build credits as any other message.
Building is the default. Neither switch is on, you describe the change, and Rork edits the code.While it works, the chat shows what it does: Explored 7 files, Made 9 actions, Running checks, Building app. Each finished message lists the files it touched, and a preview of the result.Rork stops and asks when a step needs you: a key it does not have, a question with several sensible answers, a design decision it cannot guess. Those arrive as cards in the chat with buttons, not as walls of text.
The composer has a model picker. It reads Auto by default.
The model menu. Auto is the default, and models above your plan carry a Pro or Max badge.
Auto picks the model and the reasoning effort for each message, so most people never open this menu. Pick a model by hand when you want a specific one. Models above your plan carry a Pro or Max badge, and choosing one opens the plan picker. See the full list in Plans & Subscriptions.
The microphone button records your voice and writes the text into the composer. Read it, edit it, then send it. Rork does not send a recording straight to the agent, so a wrong word costs you nothing.
Use + → Upload image or drop a file onto the chat. Rork reads screenshots, photos, PDFs, video, audio, and 3D models.A screenshot is the fastest way to describe a design. Take a picture of a Figma frame, or of an app you like, and say what you want from it.Free accounts attach files up to 10MB. Paid plans go up to 5GB.
You do not have to wait for the agent. Send another message while it works and Rork queues it. The queue header counts them, for example 2 Queued, and each row can be edited or removed before its turn.If a turn stops or fails, the queue marks itself · Paused so nothing runs on top of broken work. Press Resume when you are ready.
Yes, but design credits, not build credits. The free plan includes a monthly allowance for designing. Turning an approved design into a working app needs a paid plan. See Build credits vs Cloud credits.
Can I skip Design mode?
Yes. Turn the switch off in the + menu, or press Build on the first proposal without asking for changes.
How much did that message cost?
Open the ⋯ menu under any answer. It shows the model that ran, the credits it used, and the size of the context. See Undo a change and go back a version.
Rork keeps breaking the same thing. What now?
Stop adding messages on top of it. Revert to the last good version, then describe the change more narrowly. See How to get out of an error loop.
Where do the plan and design files live?
Plans go to .rork/plans/ and the design contract to .rork/DESIGN.md. Both travel with your code to GitHub. See How to sync your project with GitHub.
