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Drafts let you make changes in a copy of your project instead of the main version itself. Each draft has its own chat, preview, and edits. When you’re ready, accept the draft to add its edits to your project, or delete it to discard them. If you’ve worked with version control, a draft is a branch of your project, and accepting one merges it back. Nothing you build in a draft reaches your project until you accept it, and accepting a draft does not change your published app. Your published app changes only when you publish. Your app’s data is the exception. A draft uses your project’s real data, so the information you add or change while testing is real. See Drafts share your app’s backend and data. Drafts are available on all plans. Messages you send in a draft cost the same as messages in the main version of your project, and creating, updating, accepting, and deleting a draft don’t use credits. You need edit access to create, update, accept, or delete a draft.

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When to use a draft

Drafts work well whenever you want to try something without changing the version everyone else is working on. For example:
  • Test a redesign. Try new colors, fonts, or a different layout in a draft, and compare it with your current design before you commit to it.
  • Find the words that work. Write different headlines, product descriptions, or calls to action in separate drafts, and keep the version that reads best.
  • Try new visuals and motion. See how different photos, illustrations, or video change the feel of a page, or test scroll animations, a carousel, or a sticky navigation bar.
  • Build a feature that needs new data. Ask for a new table or column in a draft. Lovable prepares the change and adds it to your project’s database when you accept the draft. See Add database tables and columns from a draft.
  • Prepare changes for later. Build a sale banner or a seasonal page in a draft today, and accept it when you want to add it to your project.
  • Hand changes to someone else. Let a teammate or client work in a draft, then review the changes and accept them when they’re ready.
Drafts are optional, and you can keep building exactly as you do today. Make quick changes such as typo fixes directly in your project.

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How drafts work

You create a draft from your project’s main version, make changes in the draft, then accept it to keep those changes or delete it to discard them. You’ll see six terms as you work with drafts: Main, Draft, Update, Accept, Delete, and Publish. The table below explains each one using the same example: a bakery website where you want to try a new homepage design without changing the homepage you already have.
Creating, updating, accepting, and deleting a draft don’t use credits. You use credits only for the messages you send in a draft, and a message costs the same in a draft as in the main version of your project.
If you’ve used version control, drafts map to familiar concepts:
  • A draft is a branch forked from your project’s history, with its own chat.
  • Update rebases the draft onto the latest version of your project. If changes overlap, Lovable resolves the conflicts by reworking the draft’s edits.
  • Accept is a fast-forward merge. Your project’s history stays linear, and the draft’s edits are added as a named group.
  • Delete discards the branch.
You don’t need to know any of this to use drafts, and these terms don’t appear in the product.

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Create your first draft

Follow these steps to create a draft, make changes, compare it with your project, and decide whether to keep it.
1

Open the draft switcher

In the editor, click your project’s name at the top to open the draft switcher, where you find the project’s drafts. The top row shows your project’s name. Select the Project settings button beside it to open your project settings.
The draft switcher opened on a project with no drafts yet, showing the project's name in the header, the top row with the project's name and the Project settings button, and the New draft button
2

Create a draft

Click New draft. The new draft opens immediately as a copy of the main version of your project. It starts with the name Draft 1, and Lovable renames it based on your first prompt. To choose your own name, hover over the draft in the switcher, open its ⋮ menu, and select Rename. A name can be up to 80 characters.
3

Build in the draft

Chat with Lovable as you always do. Every edit stays in the draft, and the preview shows the draft’s version of your app.
4

Compare with your project

Use the draft switcher to move between the main version of your project and your drafts.Your project’s name always shows which version you’re viewing: the name on its own for the main version, or the name with the draft’s name beside it while you’re in a draft. The chat and preview change to match it. To return to the main version, select the top row of the switcher, which shows your project’s name.You can create as many drafts as you like and use each one to try a different idea.
5

Accept the draft, or delete it

When you want to keep a draft’s changes, select Accept. You’ll find it in several places while you’re in a draft: in the top right of the editor where Publish usually is, at the bottom of the draft switcher, and in the draft’s ⋮ menu. In the switcher you can also drag the draft onto the top row, which shows your project’s name, and in the draft’s chat you can ask Lovable to accept it.You can accept even when your project has newer edits that the draft doesn’t have yet. Lovable updates the draft first, then accepts it. To update on its own instead, use the chevron next to the switcher’s Accept button, or the draft’s ⋮ menu.Before accepting, Lovable shows you a one-line summary of what the draft changes, followed by the draft’s edits. Confirming adds them to your project’s unpublished changes and returns you to the main version of your project. The accepted draft moves to your project’s history. Accepting doesn’t use credits.Lovable keeps that summary. It appears labeled Draft summary on the accepted change in your project’s chat, and on that change in version history.
Accepting does not publish the changes, and a draft has no Publish button of its own. Publish your project from the main version when you want the changes to go live.
If you don’t want to keep the draft, delete it instead.
Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette. The Drafts group lists Main preview and every draft in the project, so you can switch without leaving the keyboard.

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Status indicators

When you have several drafts, the switcher shows the status of each one:
The draft switcher opened while viewing Draft 2, with the project's name and Draft 2 in the header, a blue dot on the top row that shows the project's name, the Drafts heading with the All drafts and My drafts tabs, Draft 1 working, Draft 2 selected and marked with a gray dot, Draft 3 marked with an orange question mark, and Draft 4 marked with a red warning triangle, above the Accept and New draft buttons
In the switcher above, Lovable is working in Draft 1, Draft 2 is the draft you’re viewing and has newer project edits to bring in, Draft 3 is waiting for an answer, and the last operation in Draft 4 failed. The blue dot on the top row, which shows your project’s name, means the project has changes ready to publish. The All drafts and My drafts tabs appear because a teammate created one of the drafts. See Use drafts with your team. Hover over a row to see what its indicator means: If a draft has no indicator, it doesn’t need your attention. The top row, which shows your project’s name, has an indicator of its own. It tells you whether your project is published, and whether it has changes you haven’t published yet: On a published project, accepting a draft turns that dot blue, because the draft’s edits are now waiting to be published. See Publish your project.

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Update a draft with newer project changes

A draft starts as a copy of your project. After you create it, you or a teammate might make newer changes to the project. Those changes don’t appear in the draft automatically. When newer changes are available, the draft’s row in the switcher shows a gray dot labeled Updates available. Select Update to bring the newer project changes into the draft. You can update from the chevron next to the switcher’s Accept button or from the draft’s ⋮ menu. You can also ask Lovable to update the draft in its chat. If the newer project changes overlap with edits in the draft, Lovable adjusts the draft’s edits to work with the updated version. The update can take a few minutes, and Lovable may add a follow-up message to the draft’s chat. The update doesn’t use credits. You can update a draft while Lovable is working in the main version of your project. The draft brings in the edits your project has finished so far. You don’t need to update a draft before accepting it. If your project has newer changes, Lovable updates the draft first and then accepts it. To do both steps yourself, select Accept draft after updating in the update dialog.

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Delete a draft

To delete a draft, open its ⋮ menu, select Delete, and confirm. Deleting removes the draft and all of its edits. Your project stays unchanged, and the deleted draft can’t be restored.

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Change the order of your drafts

The switcher lists your drafts with the most recent activity first. To set your own order, press and hold a draft for a moment, then drag it where you want it. Lovable remembers that order for the project in the browser you’re using. You can’t reorder drafts while the My drafts filter is selected, because the list is showing only some of the project’s drafts. Select All drafts first.

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Use drafts with your team

Everyone with edit access to the project sees the same drafts. Each draft shows who’s currently working in it. If you open a draft that someone else is using, Lovable suggests creating your own draft so you can work separately. When someone else has created a draft in the project, the switcher’s Drafts heading shows two tabs: All drafts and My drafts. Select My drafts to narrow the list to the drafts you created. In a project where you’re the only person who has created a draft, the tabs don’t appear. The same tabs appear in the drafts list on your phone. When someone accepts a draft, its changes are added to the project for everyone. Any other open drafts then show the gray Updates available dot until you update them. If several drafts are accepted around the same time, Lovable processes them one at a time. When more than one draft is waiting, an Accepting drafts card appears above the project chat and shows the order. You can remove a waiting draft or drag drafts to change the order.

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Drafts share your app’s backend and data

A draft keeps your changes to the app separate, but it doesn’t have a backend of its own. Every draft uses your project’s built-in backend (Cloud): the same database, the same files, and the same settings. If you add, edit, or delete information while testing in a draft, those changes are real, just as they are when you test your project directly. Deleting the draft doesn’t undo them. Backend work you ask for in a draft applies to your project in the same way, apart from the changes listed below. When an action is harder to undo, Lovable explains it in the draft’s chat first and asks you to confirm.
If you edit or delete a record your app already has, it changes for your published app too. Create your own records to test with.

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Backend changes you make in the main version

A change to how that shared backend is configured reaches your published app immediately, so Lovable makes these changes only in the main version of your project:
  • Backend functions. You can edit a backend function’s code in a draft, but Lovable deploys it only from the main version. The change takes effect after you accept the draft.
  • Sign-in methods, including social login providers such as Google and Apple.
  • Secrets, the values your app uses to reach other services.
  • File storage settings, such as whether a storage bucket is public.
  • Enabling AI features for your app. See AI features for your app.
  • Payments, including enabling payments and creating products and prices, whether you use the built-in payments or your own Stripe account. See Add payments to your app.
  • Email sending, including your email domain, email templates, and enabling or disabling emails from your app. See Send branded emails from your own domain.
  • Enabling the built-in backend (Cloud), if your project doesn’t have it yet.
If you ask for one of these in a draft, Lovable tells you to make the change in the main version instead, and continues with the rest of your request. Switch to the main version, make the change there, then update your draft to bring it in.

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Add database tables and columns from a draft

Your app keeps its information in a database, organized into tables. A table of reviews, for example, has a column for the rating, one for the comment, and one for the product being reviewed. Every draft uses the same database as your project, so Lovable doesn’t add a table or a column while you work in a draft. It prepares the change and makes it when you accept the draft:
  1. You ask for it in the draft’s chat. For example, “Add a reviews table with a rating, a comment, and the product it belongs to.”
  2. Lovable prepares the change and builds the pages that use it. The table doesn’t exist yet, so any page that reads or saves reviews shows an error in the draft’s preview. That error is expected, and it disappears when you accept the draft.
  3. You accept the draft. Lovable adds the table to your project’s database and describes what it added in your project’s main chat.
This works for additions: new tables, new columns, and new rules about who can read or change the information. Lovable doesn’t remove or rename an existing table or column from a draft, or change the kind of information a column stores. If you ask for one of those changes, Lovable reaches the same result by adding to your database instead, for example by adding a new column and copying the data over. The old column stays in place. When a change can’t be made by adding, Lovable points you to the SQL editor at More → Cloud → SQL editor, where you make the change yourself. See Run SQL queries. You also enable the built-in backend (Cloud) from the main version of your project. If your project doesn’t have Cloud yet and your draft needs it, switch to the main version and ask Lovable to enable it there. Then update your draft to bring the change in.

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Work with drafts on your phone

You can create, switch between, and manage drafts from your phone. Open the drafts list in either of two ways:
  • Tap your project’s name at the top of the screen and select Drafts.
  • Tap the button above the chat input, which shows Main or the name of the draft you’re in. It appears once the project has at least one draft.
The list works like the switcher on a computer: tap a draft to switch to it, tap New draft to create one, and open a draft’s ⋮ menu to rename, accept, update, or delete it. When an action isn’t available, the reason appears next to it in the menu.

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Limitations

Keep these in mind while you work with drafts.
  • Drafts don’t support Git sync yet. A draft doesn’t appear as a branch in your connected repository, and its code reaches the repository only after you accept the draft.
  • Some backend work has to happen in the main version of your project, including changes to your app’s sign-in methods, secrets, backend functions, payments, and email sending. See Backend changes you make in the main version.

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Troubleshooting

If drafts aren’t working as expected, these are the most common causes.
Hover over the button to see why it’s unavailable. The two actions become unavailable for different reasons.Accept is unavailable when the draft has no edits yet, when it’s already being accepted or waiting its turn to be accepted, and while the draft is being created or deleted.Update is unavailable when the draft is already up to date with your project, when an update is already running, while Lovable is working in the draft, and while the draft is being accepted or deleted.Wait for the current work to finish, then try again.If you drag a draft onto the top row, which shows your project’s name, and it can’t be accepted yet, the draft returns to its place in the list and Lovable shows you the same reason.
The draft couldn’t bring in your project’s newer edits.Select Update to try again. If it fails again, wait until Lovable finishes the work it’s doing in the draft, then retry.
You’re viewing a draft that was already accepted, usually after opening it from your project’s history. You can still read its chat and review its edits, but you can’t continue building in it, so the chat input is replaced by this message.Select View latest to return to the main version of your project, where the draft’s edits now live.
Each draft preview has its own web address, so your sign-in doesn’t always carry over. If your app has user accounts, sign in again inside the draft preview.The draft keeps you signed in while you build in it, and your account and its data are unaffected.

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FAQ

Common questions about working with drafts.
No. A draft’s edits stay in the draft until you accept it. Accepted edits are added to your project’s unpublished changes and reach your published app only when you publish.
You can reopen an accepted draft from your project’s history to read its chat and review its edits, but you can’t continue building in it.To continue the idea, create a new draft from the latest version of your project. To undo everything the accepted draft added, restore an earlier version from version history. You can’t revert individual edits from an accepted draft one by one.
No. You can create as many drafts as you need.
Anyone with edit access to the project can create, build in, update, accept, and delete drafts. People with view-only access can switch between drafts and view their previews, but draft actions are disabled for them. Drafts don’t appear in preview links.
No. Messages you send in a draft cost the same as messages in the main version of your project, and a draft you aren’t working in doesn’t use credits.Creating, updating, accepting, and deleting a draft don’t use credits, including an update where Lovable adjusts the draft’s edits to work with newer project changes, and an accept where Lovable updates the draft first.
Yes. A draft’s preview uses your project’s real data, so any data you add, edit, or delete while testing in a draft is changed for real. You can also ask for new tables and columns in a draft, and Lovable adds them to your database when you accept it. See Add database tables and columns from a draft.
Yes. Creating a draft forks your project, so the draft has a history of its own alongside your project’s. Accepting the draft merges it back, and updating it rebases it onto your project’s latest edits. The product calls those actions Accept and Update, and you don’t need any version-control experience to use them. See For readers who know version control for how each term maps.
Yes, but Git sync doesn’t support drafts directly yet. You can still work in drafts, and edits you accept sync to your default branch like any other project change.
Lovable removes a draft with no edits after 24 hours, so no work was lost. If you accepted the draft instead, you’ll find it in your project’s history.