The better you describe what you want, the closer the first result will be. Good news: it is easy, and there is no special syntax to learn. You just write like you are briefing a helpful person.
Your first message (the build)
For the very first message in a chat, give the AI the big picture. A great first prompt usually answers three things:
- Who is it for? The business or person, and what they do.
- What sections? The parts you want on the page.
- What feeling? The tone or style you are going for.
Vague vs. clear
Flip the toggle to see how much the wording changes the result.
- Generic bakery layout with placeholder text
- No specific sections you asked for
- You'll spend edits fixing the basics
Asking for changes (edits)
After the first build, every message is an edit. Edits are smaller, faster, and cheaper than a full build. Point at what you want changed and say how:
- “Make the hero headline bigger.”
- “Change the buttons to green.”
- “Add a testimonials section after the features.”
- “Replace the About text with this: …”
- “Make it pop.”
- “Fix it.”
- “I don’t like it.”
- “Something’s off.”
Made a change you do not like?
Every version is saved automatically. You can restore an earlier version of your site at any point from the project, so experimenting is risk-free. If an edit went the wrong way, just roll back or ask for the opposite.
What the AI will not build
Canvas Builder makes marketing and content websites (landing pages, business sites, portfolios, and the like). It is not for building web apps with logins, dashboards, or databases. If you ask for something outside what it does, it will tell you kindly rather than build something broken.