# Getting started

From the idea box on getripping.com to a running app, including the free first build and what it contains.

## Describe the idea

The idea box is on the home page and on **New project** once you are signed in. It takes up to 1,000 characters; a ring next to the button shows how full it is. Four characters is the minimum.

1. Pick what you are making from the tabs on the box: **Web app**, **Mobile app**, **AI Agent**, **Website** or **Extension**. Mobile builds phone-first, Extension builds a Chrome extension; the rest build for the web.
2. Type the idea, or press the microphone and say it. Dictation adds to what is already in the box.
3. Optional: drop a reference image on the box (PNG, JPEG or WebP). The builder sees it once.
4. Optional: **Improve my prompt** turns a rough note into a structured brief with bullets. **Undo** puts your words back.
5. The model picker shows which Ripping is building: **Ripping 3.3**, **Ripping 3.3 Zip**, **Ripping 4.1** (the default) or **Ripping 5.0**. **Ripping 6.0 Max** is listed as "soon" and cannot be picked yet.
6. Press Enter, or **Build it**. Signed out, the button says **Get Ripping**.

Under the box, **Try:** offers three example briefs; the refresh button draws three more.

## Sign up

Signed out, the brief is kept and you go to the account screen.

- Email and password (at least 8 characters). A 6-digit code arrives by email; the build starts the moment you enter it.
- **Continue with Google**: the address is already verified, so the build starts at once.

The brief is stored against your account before anything else happens, so a closed tab does not lose it.

## The first build

The project opens on a full-screen checklist headed **First build**.

**Starting point.** A line reads "Building this as *App*" (or *Course platform*, *Internal tool*, *SaaS*, *Website*, *Chrome extension*). It was picked from your brief. Press **Change** to pick another before anything is built; the project's files are reset to that starter. Once the first build has started this cannot change.

**Step 1: What do you need?** Tick any of **Landing Page**, **Sign Up + Sign In**, **App Dashboard**. Ticking nothing is a real answer: the build leaves those out and deletes them from the starter.

**Up to three questions** read from your brief, each with up to four answers and a **Something else** box. **Back**, **Skip** and **Next**; the last button is **Build it**. Keys 1 to 9 pick an answer, Enter goes on. **Skip the questions and build now** starts on the defaults.

Then the checklist fills in: Prompt received, Create the project, Set up sign-in, a landing page and your design, Open a live preview, Warm up the builder, then the builder's own steps as it does them. A first build usually takes a minute or two. When it finishes the screen says **It's alive.** and the editor appears.

If it stops, the screen says "The first build stopped on *name*" with the reason, and offers **Try the first build again** or **Open the editor**. The project is saved either way.

## What it costs

Nothing. The first build does not come out of your tokens. It has its own room of 400 tokens, and if the build runs out of time and continues itself, up to four chained turns (each within ten minutes of the last) are still free. See [Plans and tokens](/guide/plans-and-tokens).

One free build per account. If the account already has a project, the home-page brief is refused with "You already have a project".

## What the first build contains

The **App** starter is a working app before the builder touches it:

- A landing page in front, with sign in and create account.
- Accounts: email and password, **Continue with Google**, forgot password, a welcome screen.
- The app shell: a home screen with a menu, a settings screen, an account menu, a **Purchases** page (shown when the app sells something).
- Privacy and Terms pages, a not-found page, an error screen.
- Data that syncs across devices: private per-account storage, shared collections, file uploads.

The builder customises this to your brief rather than rebuilding it. Two starters differ: **Internal tool** has no landing page and sign-up is invite-only from the start; **Website** has no accounts at all, and its contact form and newsletter land in your inbox (see [App users and data](/guide/app-users-and-data)).

Every change the builder makes is type-checked and bundle-checked before it is handed back. If something breaks, it fixes that first.