Start here

Paste this into your AI tool as the very first message. It is long on purpose: the length is what stops the tool guessing at things it should be asking you about, and what keeps it from writing something insecure.

Works with any assistant that can create and edit files on your computer. If yours only chats and cannot write files, it will be able to plan but not build. The rest of this page is what the prompt will do and what it will need from you.

What you are building

A phone app that opens a compartment. Someone leaves something inside one, and someone else collects it later, without the two of them needing to meet or agree on a time.

The compartments live in an Exchange Zone, which is a physical location with one or more towers standing at it. Relai owns that hardware and decides who is allowed to open what. Your app is the part people actually touch: signing in, choosing a location, and pressing the button that opens the door.

You do not have to understand Bluetooth, and you should never end up writing any. Relai authorizes each open on its servers and the Relai kit inside your app handles the hardware. If your AI tool starts writing Bluetooth code, something has gone wrong and the prompt below tells it to stop and ask you.

You can build and test the whole thing without any hardware at all. Every new app gets its own simulated Exchange Zones, so you will see a real drop-off and pick-up working before you spend anything on a phone, a developer account, or a visit to a real location.

What it costs

Nothing here is hidden until later, and none of it is due today. In rough order:

• An AI tool. Whatever you already pay for one, or its free tier if it has a usable one.
• A Relai subscription, once you create your app. See billing and pricing for the current plans. Nothing is charged while you are only reading.
• Apple, $99 a year, and only when you want the app on iPhones other than through a test build.
• Google, $25 once, for the same reason on Android.

You can get all the way to a working app in the simulator before any of the store costs apply, so treat them as a decision you make after you have seen it work, not before.

What happens next

1. It asks you four questions. The name of the app, how you want people to use the Exchange Zones, whether the app is free or paid, and whether you have any brand guidelines. Answer as well as you can. "I do not know" is a real answer to any of them and the tool will pick something sensible and tell you what it picked.
2. It shows you a short plan. One screen: what it will build, what the screens will be, and what you will have to do yourself.
3. You reply "let's start". Nothing is written before you do.
4. It builds, without stopping to ask you things. This takes a while and there is nothing for you to do during it. It is meant to run all the way to a working app rather than checking in every few minutes.
5. It stops and gives you a list. The things only you can do, in the order they have to happen, with a reason next to each one.

The second question is the one worth thinking about, because it changes the shape of the app more than the others: are people leaving things for themselves to collect later, for one particular person they name, or for whoever they send a link to?

Your part

The tool will produce this list itself at the end, tailored to what it built. Here it is in advance, so you can see the whole shape before you start. Each one is something no assistant can do for you, because it needs your identity, your card, or your hands.

1. Create a Relai account and onboard as a Relai 3 partner, then accept the terms. Relai 3 is simply what Relai calls the people who build apps on it, so that is you. Minutes. Free.
2. Request SDK access and choose a subscription, then complete the checkout. Access is granted straight away.
3. Create your app and copy its publishable key into the project, where the tool will show you. Your app gets its own simulated Exchange Zones at the same moment.
4. Try it on a real phone. Bluetooth does not work in a simulator, so this is the first point at which an actual open is proven.
5. Open Apple and Google developer accounts, when you are ready to publish. Start these early: Apple in particular can take days.
6. Request production access from your app's page, once the sandbox version does what you want. A Relai admin reviews it, and your live keys arrive alongside your sandbox ones rather than replacing them.
7. Publish, following the publishing guide.

When you are stuck

Two things are worth knowing before you need them.

• A confident wrong answer is the failure mode to watch for. If your tool says something works, ask it to show you. The prompt tells it not to claim progress it has not run, and holding it to that is the most useful thing you can do.
• The rest of these docs are written for developers, and your AI tool can read them even if you would rather not. Point it at the documentation when it gets something wrong, and it will usually correct itself.

If you are stuck on something that is not code, write to hello@relai.us. Questions about accounts, subscriptions, hardware and production access are all ours to answer, not your assistant's.