Writing a good Build AI request

Build AI turns a plain-English description into a working recipe. The catch: it builds exactly what you say, word for word. It won’t guess what you really meant, and it won’t stop to ask questions. A vague request gets you a vague recipe.

The trick is to picture yourself doing the task by hand, then write down each thing you’d do, in order — as if you were giving directions to a friend who has never seen the game.

Here’s what makes the difference.

Quote the words you see on screen

The AI finds buttons by reading the text on your screen, so give it the exact wording, in quotes. Not “click the word range” but tap the text “Gamble”. Not “press the start thing” but tap “Tap to Play”.

You don’t need the whole label. A short, clearly readable piece of it is enough. If a button has no text at all (an icon, an ✕ in the corner), just describe it: tap the ✕ button in the top right — it has no text. There’s one extra step involved with picture-only buttons, covered below.

Say when something only appears sometimes

Popups, bonuses and notices don’t show up every run. If you write “tap the daily bonus” without mentioning that, the recipe will fail every time the bonus isn’t there.

Phrases like if you see…, sometimes and may appear fix this. So instead of “tap the daily bonus”, write if the daily bonus is showing, tap it.

One sentence, one job

The most common mistake we see is cramming a loop and a fallback into a single sentence, like this:

“if you see the popup, close it, otherwise tap Gamble, and keep checking until it’s gone”

That’s asking for two things that can’t both happen at once, and the recipe will misbehave. Split it up — finish the popup-closing job first, then say what comes next:

“Keep tapping the ✕ button while the popup is showing. Once it’s gone (or if it was never there), tap the text ‘Gamble’.”

Blinking buttons are “optional”, not “if you see it”

“If you see it” makes the AI check one single moment in time. A button that pulses or fades in and out might be invisible at exactly that moment, so the step gets skipped and things break later.

For anything that blinks, write it like this instead: tap “Tap to Play” — it may take a moment to appear, this step is optional. That way the recipe keeps trying for a while rather than judging from one glance.

Picture-only buttons need one box-draw from you

If a target has no text, the AI can describe it but can’t photograph it ahead of time. So expect this on the first run — it’s normal, not a bug:

  1. The recipe is created and looks complete.
  2. The first run fails at that step, with a message about a missing template or image.
  3. Tap 🔧 Fix here and draw a box around the button on the screenshot it shows you.
  4. Run it again. Now it works, permanently.

One box, one time. You don’t need to rebuild anything.

Put a number on slow loading

Game loading screens can take a while. If you don’t say so, the AI assumes things appear quickly and may give up too soon. If you’ve seen a screen take its time, write it in: wait for “Campaign” to appear — starting the game can take up to 45 seconds.

Phrases that always work

A few phrasings are understood very reliably, so use them freely:

  • “optional” or “skippable” — the step won’t fail the run if it doesn’t happen
  • “if you see X, do Y” — Y only happens when X is actually on screen
  • “if it never shows, move on” — wait a bit, then continue anyway

Watch the first run

Once the recipe is built, run it once while you watch. You’re checking for two things. If it fails because a popup wasn’t there, some “sometimes” step wasn’t marked as such — reword it and rebuild. If a step fails with a missing-image message, that’s the picture-button case: draw the box with 🔧 Fix here and run again.

Putting it all together

A complete, well-written request looks like this:

“Open the game and wait for ‘Campaign’ to appear — loading can take up to 45 seconds. A notice popup may show up, possibly more than once — keep tapping the ✕ button (top right, no text) while it’s showing. Once it’s gone, or if it never appeared, tap the text ‘Gamble’. Then tap ‘Tap to Play’ — it fades in and out, so this step is optional and may take a moment.”

It quotes the on-screen words, treats the popup as optional and loops only the dismissing, gives “tap Gamble” its own sentence, describes the ✕ button (expect one box-draw on the first run), and puts a number on the slow load.