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Overview
Chat mode is RShift Sites’ conversation mode, designed for discussing your project without changing its code. It is the Chat option in the project chat, described in the mode picker as Ask anything, explore ideas. RShift Sites starts with the project you have open and reads its code, files, and data to answer. You can ask how the app works, talk through a change, compare options, or ask RShift Sites to outline an approach in prose. Nothing you discuss changes your code.
Each Chat mode message is priced as a chat message, on the work RShift Sites does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first. See How Chat mode messages are priced.
What Chat mode is for
Use Chat mode to talk through your project before you decide what to build:
- Ask how a part of your app works before you change it
- Talk through a feature idea and decide whether it is worth building
- Investigate an error or unexpected behavior and find the cause
- Compare two approaches and understand what each one involves
- Get a second opinion on a design, a flow, or a piece of copy
- Ask a general question about building with RShift Sites while you work
- Check a fact in your app’s data, such as whether an order was recorded
Many Chat mode conversations end with an answer or a decision. When you decide on a change, switch to Plan or Build.
How to use Chat mode
Activate Chat mode
Open the mode picker next to the chat input, which shows the current mode, and select Chat. You can also cycle through Build, Chat, and Plan with Option+P (Mac) or Alt+P (Windows/Linux). Then write what you want to discuss. RShift Sites may ask a clarifying question when your message could mean several things.
Ask about your app
How does the checkout flow work today? Walk me through what happens from the moment someone taps "Buy" to the order appearing in the admin view.Explore an idea
I'm thinking of adding a loyalty program: one stamp per purchase, a free coffee at ten. What would that take in this app, and is there a simpler version worth trying first?Investigate a problem
Customers with three or more items say the total comes out lower than the prices add up to. What's going on?Get a second opinion
The onboarding has four screens before someone sees the app. Is that too many? Which ones could merge, and what would we lose?Work with project context
RShift Sites answers from your project, so you do not need to describe your app before you ask about it. In Chat mode, RShift Sites can read:
- Your project’s code and files
- Your app’s data, when RShift Sites Cloud is connected
- The conversation so far, including changes made in Build mode
- Other projects in your workspace that you reference
- Your connected tools, such as Slack, Notion, or Linear
To reference a specific file, type @ and select it, or use Reference file in chat in the code editor. To add another project as context, type @ and select it, or ask for it by name. Cross-project referencing is read-only and follows your workspace permissions.
Connectors work in Chat mode as they do in Build mode. RShift Sites reads from a connected tool without asking, and asks for your approval before it creates, sends, or changes anything through the tool, unless you saved an Always allow answer for that tool.
What Chat mode does not do
Chat mode never changes your project’s code or data. While Chat mode is active, RShift Sites does not:
- Create or edit project files
- Change data in your app’s database or run database migrations
- Generate or edit images and videos
- Enable RShift Sites Cloud, user authentication, or email sending for your project
- Publish your app
- Create a plan in the Plan view
Chat mode can outline an approach in the conversation, with the steps in build order, the parts of the app involved, and the trade-offs, but it does not create an editable plan in the Plan view. Switch to Plan mode when you want a structured plan to review and approve. For the other actions, RShift Sites proposes switching to Build mode. See Switch to Plan or Build.
Switch to Plan or Build
When you ask RShift Sites to build, fix, or change something, to generate an image or a video, or to publish, it shows a Start building card marked (Uses credits):
- Select Build and RShift Sites switches to Build mode and makes the change. The card then reads Switched to Build mode. Your workspace needs available build credits for this step. The daily chat allowance does not cover the build.
- Select Skip to stay in Chat mode. The card reads Kept Chat mode, and nothing changes in your project. RShift Sites describes the change instead.
RShift Sites shows the card only when you ask for the change. When you describe a problem, share an idea, or ask whether something is possible, the conversation stays in Chat mode.
You can also switch modes yourself in the picker at any time:
- Select Build when you know what you want built.
- Select Plan when you want a structured plan to review, edit, and approve before anything is built. See Plan mode.
Everything you discussed in Chat mode stays in the conversation, so RShift Sites starts the plan or the build with that context. For how pricing changes after you switch, see How Chat mode messages are priced.
How Chat mode messages are priced
Chat usage follows its own pricing model, including a per-message price and a daily chat allowance. A chat message is priced on the work RShift Sites does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Free, Pro, and Business workspaces include a daily chat allowance that covers chat messages first. The allowance belongs to the workspace, so everyone’s chat messages draw on the same daily pool. When the day’s allowance is used up, chat messages keep the same per-message price and draw on your daily build credits, then your general credits. The allowance resets every day at 00:00 UTC and does not roll over. Enterprise plans do not include a daily chat allowance. See Chat costs for the full rules.
The Chat option in the mode picker shows a Free badge while today’s allowance lasts. The More options menu on RShift Sites’ response shows Credits used, which reads Free when the allowance covered the message.
Messages you send in Chat mode are priced as chat messages. After you select Build, on the Start building card or in the picker, RShift Sites’ work is priced as usage-based Build mode work. This includes the change RShift Sites makes right after you approve the card. After you switch to Plan, the messages that follow are priced as Plan mode messages.
FAQ
Does Chat mode ever change my code?
No. Chat mode reads your project and discusses it. Changes begin only after the conversation moves to Build mode, either because you select Build on the Start building card or because you select Build in the mode picker yourself.
What does a Chat mode message cost?
A Chat mode message is priced on the work RShift Sites does to answer it, typically a fraction of a credit. Your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first. When the allowance is used up for the day, the message draws on your daily build credits, then your general credits, at the same per-message price. Messages you send after switching to Plan or Build use that mode’s pricing. See Chat costs.
What is the difference between Chat mode and Plan mode?
Use Chat mode for the conversation and Plan mode for the plan.
In Chat mode, RShift Sites answers in the chat: how something works, whether an idea is worth building, or what caused an error. It can outline steps in prose, but it does not create a plan you can approve. Each message is a chat message, typically a fraction of a credit, and your workspace’s daily chat allowance covers it first.
In Plan mode, RShift Sites investigates your project and writes a structured plan in the Plan view. You edit and approve it, and RShift Sites builds from it. Each message costs one credit, plus any subagent research.
Start in Chat mode. Switch to Plan mode when you have decided what to change and want a plan to approve.
What is the difference between Chat mode and Chats?
Chat mode is inside a project chat. RShift Sites starts with that project, everyone with access to the project sees the conversation, and a change starts through the Start building card.
Chats lives outside your projects at lovable.dev/chats. RShift Sites starts with your workspace and connected tools, each chat is private to you, and a change is sent to a project as a build instruction.
They share the same per-message pricing and the same daily chat allowance.