Build and publish a website
Have a bot build a small website, preview it, share a link while you work on it, then put it online with your own domain.
In this guide a bot builds a small website for you on its computer. You preview it inside Machine Desktop, send a temporary link to someone for feedback, and then publish it for good, optionally on your own domain name.
What you'll end up with: a live website with its own link.
Time needed: about 20 minutes, plus however long the bot takes to build.
What you need first:
- Machine Desktop installed and signed in.
- A bot. Any bot works. The Coding partner starting point (a bot called Dev) is made for this kind of work.
- Optional: your logo or photos, to attach.
- Optional: a domain name you own, if you want the site on your own address.
Start a fresh thread
Right-click your bot in the sidebar and choose New thread. One website per thread keeps its files together.
Leave the chip above the message box on Cloud. The bot builds and runs the site on its own computer in the cloud.
Need a new bot? Press Ctrl+N (⌘N on Mac) and pick Coding partner.
Describe the website
Say what the site is for, what goes on it, and how it should feel. Ask to see a preview. For example:
Make a one-page website for my bakery, "Rise". Include opening hours (Tue–Sun, 7am–3pm), our address, and three menu highlights. Use warm colors. Show me a preview when it's running.
Build a simple personal website with three sections: About me, My work, and Contact. Keep the design clean, with lots of white space. Put all the files in a folder called site, and run it so I can preview it.
To use your own logo or photos, click the paperclip and attach them
(images up to 10 MB each). They're copied onto the bot's computer, into a
folder called uploads.
If a card asks for approval, read it and click Allow once. Everything happens on the bot's own cloud computer, not yours.
Preview the site
To test the site, the bot usually runs it on its computer. There are two ways to see it:
- In the chat. A live preview of the website appears in the bot's reply, with Reload and Open in browser.
- In the Browser tab. Click the monitor icon in the chat header to
open the bot's computer, then the Browser tab. Click the Running
chip for the site. Or type the address the bot gave you, like
localhost:3000, and click Open.
"localhost" means "this computer", and the number is the port the website runs on. If you see "Nothing to show yet", ask the bot:
Run the site so I can preview it.
Ask for changes
Reply in the same thread with what to change. Be specific:
Make the header dark green, move the opening hours to the top, and make the menu highlights into three cards side by side.
To show the bot what you mean, take a screenshot of the preview and paste it into the message box with Ctrl+V (⌘V). Images are shown to the model directly, so it can see them.
To point at one part of an image that's already in the chat, click the image to open it, click Annotate a region, drag a box around the part you mean, and type a comment. The cropped picture and your comment are attached to your next message.
Share a link while you work on it
Want someone to look at it before it's public for good? While the site is running:
- Click the Export conversation icon in the chat header.
- Click Share the site on localhost:3000 (or whatever number your site uses).
This creates a public link to the website and copies it, so you can send it to anyone. It's handy for quick feedback. To put the website online permanently, deploy it (next step).
To turn a link off, open the same menu and click the trash icon next to it.
Put it online
When you're happy, publish the site as a deployment: a live website with its own link. Either:
-
Ask the bot. For example:
Deploy the site folder.
-
Do it yourself. Open the bot's computer, go to the folder, and click Deploy followed by the folder's name. At the top level, click Deploy… and pick a folder.
When it finishes, you get a Live: link. If it fails, the message says why.
Add your own domain
- Open Tools → Deployments at the bottom of the sidebar. Every site and app your bots have published is listed here.
- Click Edit on your site.
- Under Custom domains, type your domain. Put one domain per line.
- Point each domain's DNS at the deployment. The domain goes live only after that. The drawer shows which domains are currently serving.
- Save your changes. Saving doesn't deploy, so click Redeploy to put them live.
Changing the site later
After you change the site, ask the bot to deploy it again, or click Redeploy on the Deployments page. If a deploy fails, click Logs to see why, and try again.
Tips
- Ask for one folder. "Put all the files in a folder called site" makes deploying simple.
- Don't put passwords or API keys in Environment variables. On the Deployments page, these are stored as plain text.
- Stop takes a site offline but keeps it, so you can deploy it again. Delete takes it down for good and can't be undone.
- Deleting the thread doesn't take the site down. Websites you deployed from a thread stay online.
- Start with the default model. If the bot keeps getting something wrong, try a more capable model from the model chip.
