Templates

A template is a working app you can use as a starting point. You don't describe the app from a blank prompt; you pick a template that's close to what you want, give it a name, and the agent uses the template as the base. Then you tweak.

If your app is "like X but with Y," templates save you a lot of back-and-forth.

When to start from a template

• You're new to Appsanic. The free plan grants 5 template projects so you can see how the agent works without coming up with an idea from scratch.
• You want to launch fast. Templates are polished apps. Starting from one gets you 80% to your final app on day one.
• Your app is structurally similar to a common pattern. A social feed, a marketplace, a chat app, a habit tracker. If you can describe your app as "like X but for Y," there's probably a template for X.

When to skip templates:

• Your idea is unusual enough that no template comes close.
• You enjoy the blank-canvas freedom of describing the whole thing.

Where to find them

Go to Dashboard → Templates. You see a gallery of cards, each showing:

• The template's name.
• A category badge (Social, Commerce, AI, Productivity, etc.).
• A live mockup showing what the home screen looks like.
• A one-line description of what the template does.

The gallery has category filter chips at the top so you can narrow down. All shows everything; tap a category to filter.

Categories

The categories you'll see (varies as the template library grows):

• Social: feeds, profiles, follows, comments, DMs.
• Commerce: product catalogs, carts, checkouts, marketplaces.
• AI: chat-style apps, AI-assisted tools, generated content.
• Productivity: habit trackers, journals, todos, time trackers.
• Health & fitness: workouts, meals, mood logging.
• Community: accountability groups, local events.

If you don't see one you like, that's fine. Start from scratch with a clear prompt instead.

Starting from a template

1. Browse the gallery; tap any card to see a larger preview.
2. Click Use this template on the card you want.
3. A modal asks for a name for your new project.
4. Click Create.

The agent kicks off in plan mode (see The Planning Phase) with the template's structure already in place. The plan it shows you isn't "build the whole template from scratch". It's the agent confirming what's there and asking what you want to change.

From here, talk to it like any other build:

"Change the name from 'Plant Diary' to 'Herb Tracker'. Update the home screen copy to refer to herbs. Replace the leafy green theme with a warmer terracotta primary color."

What you get with a template

Everything a fresh project has, plus the template's:

• Screens: built and ready.
• Sample data: populated so the app feels alive on first preview.
• Data structure: tables and relationships created in your Supabase project.
• Sign-in flow if relevant. Wired and working.
• Brand kit: a starter kit that matches the template's look, which you can edit or replace.

You can tweak any of it. Nothing is locked.

"Preview with sample data" (the in-app toggle)

Many template apps build in a small escape hatch so someone can explore the app before any backend is wired up. When the app starts without a Supabase connection it shows a Connect screen explaining how to connect one. That screen also offers a button labelled Preview with sample data (some templates word it Explore with sample data).

Tapping it drops you straight into the app, filled with believable demo content - sample notes, demo matches, a fake user - so you can click around and get a feel for the thing without configuring a database. A slim "Preview mode · sample data" banner stays pinned at the top with a one-tap Exit back to the Connect screen.

A few things worth being clear about:

• It is session-only. The toggle lives in memory and is never saved. Nothing you do in preview mode is stored, and closing or reloading the app clears it.
• It never reaches a configured or published app. The toggle is reachable only from the Connect screen, and the Connect screen only renders when there is no backend connected. The moment real Supabase keys are present, the app skips Connect entirely - so the toggle, and the demo data behind it, can never appear in a live build.
• It is not the same as the template's Supabase-seeded sample data. That is different and described next: when you create a project, the agent seeds real rows into your Supabase project so the app feels alive on first preview. Those rows are persisted in your database and you control them. The in-app "Preview with sample data" content, by contrast, is throwaway data that lives only in the running app and touches no database at all.

In short: the in-app toggle is a no-backend tour for whoever opens the app; the Supabase-seeded data is real content in your real database.

Tweaking a template

The agent doesn't treat the template's code as sacred. Common things to ask:

"Change the brand to use deep navy + warm yellow."

"Drop the comments feature; I don't want comments in v1."

"Replace the photo upload with a text-only entry."

"Add a streak counter on the home screen."

Big changes are fine. You can essentially start with the template and end up with something quite different. The template just saved you the boilerplate.

Sharing or duplicating

Templates are starting points, not connections. Once you create a project from a template, your project is independent. Updates to the template don't flow into your project, and your edits don't flow back.

If you want a second project from the same template, just go back to Dashboard → Templates and click Use this template again. You get a fresh copy.

If you want to share your project as a template, that's not a user-facing feature today. Internal templates are curated by us.

The Free plan and templates

The Free plan grants 5 template projects so you can see how Appsanic works end-to-end without paying. You can:

• Open a template and walk through how the agent planned and built it.
• Preview the template on your phone via Expo Go.
• Export the code locally.

You can't run your own prompts against the AI models on Free, and you can't push to GitHub or publish to the App Store. Those start at Pro. See Plans and Billing for details.

Things that catch people out

• Templates aren't "lite mode." You get the full app, full backend, full features. The agent is doing the same work; it just starts further along.
• The brand kit a template comes with isn't permanent. Swap it for your own (or build without a brand). See Brand Kits.
• Sample data persists in your Supabase project until you ask the agent to wipe it. Use "Wipe all sample data and start with an empty database" if you want a clean slate.

Under the hood (for engineers)

• Templates live in a managed public.templates table; the /api/templates route reads them with a small Cache-Control window.
• Creating a project from a template clones the template's file tree into a new project, runs the template's Supabase migrations against the user's project, and seeds the optional sample data.
• The category filter is hydrated from the same API response so the chips are always in sync with the live template set.

Next

Read Writing Prompts to make the most of your template's first iteration, or Projects for managing the projects you create.