Picture a small job in an app you already run: a wallpaper app that needs one extra screen showing only the favorites. You know what you want. Then you open the menu beside the input box and find three choices, Build, Plan, and Design, and your hand stops.
None of them is a trap you cannot back out of. Still, on a free plan where the daily allowance is small, I would rather not pick the first one by feel.
Here is the rule I would like to offer first: choose by what you are unsure about right now, not by the name of the feature. What follows is based on Rork's own documentation as of October 24, 2026 (the Design mode, Plan mode, and Plans & Subscriptions pages), reread and sorted into the lines I draw for myself. Screens change from time to time, so please treat your own screen as the final word.
What each mode settles before any code exists
The difference is how much gets decided before the code begins. Design and Plan both write no code until you press Build.
| Mode | Settles first | What you keep | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design | The look: colors, layout, the first screen | 3 or 4 drawn screens. The approved look is saved to .rork/DESIGN.md | Writes no code. The screens are pictures, so you cannot tap through them |
| Plan | The whole app: features, screens, how they connect, what "done" means | A readable plan with overview, screens, features, design, flow, and goals. A new app also gets drawn key screens | Changes no files (it only reads). The plan panel is read-only; you change it by asking in chat |
| Build | Nothing in advance | A working app | Puts no plan or design proposal in between. Suited to small edits and bug fixes |
Two small notes. Only one mode can be on at a time: choosing Plan turns Design off, and the reverse. And Plan asks its questions in at most two rounds, then writes the plan with whatever it knows, so it never turns into an interview.
Three questions, in this order
Before I send anything, I ask myself these, one after another.
- Do I have no candidate for the look yet?
- Have I left the features and how the screens connect so undecided that I could not explain them to another person?
- Is the thing I want to change small, like a color or a label?
If the first answer is yes and the second is no, choose Design. If the second is yes, choose Plan. If the third is yes, choose Build without hesitating.
Here are three examples side by side.
| What you want | What you are unsure about | Mode | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add one "favorites" screen to an app you already have | Almost nothing; the existing screens set the look | Build | The scope is small. Choosing Plan here costs you more time reading the plan than it saves |
| Build a habit tracker for the family from nothing | Both the features and the flow | Plan | You see the screens and a flow diagram first, and each change costs one message |
| Try font sizes and colors for a quiz app you will hand to an older relative | Only the look; "four-choice quiz" covers the features | Design | You compare palette and first-screen options without discussing features |
The first row is the mistake I find easiest to make on a free plan. "It is a new feature, so Plan" adds a round trip to a small change. The third row started with Build would leave the look to the model's judgment, and you would end up asking for "a different overall feel" afterward.
On the free plan, you can settle the look and stop there
The pricing page says the Free plan runs in Design mode, and Build mode, which makes a working app, opens with a paid plan. These are the numbers to hold on to.
- Free allows up to 5 credits per day; the monthly allowance is 35 in major markets and 5 elsewhere
- Rork Pro is $20 a month with 100 credits, including Build mode and Dev mode
- Rork Max starts at $200 a month and adds iPad, Apple Watch, widgets, and more
So on Free you can decide the look and then decide whether to pay. If you press Build from a design on a free account, a plan picker titled "Turn your design into a real app" opens. Money only enters the picture at that point.
Three things are not clear from the documentation, so I will write them down plainly.
- How many credits one Design mode turn costs is not stated on the official pages
- Whether Plan mode is available on the free plan cannot be told from the pricing table alone
- Some free accounts start in Design automatically and may not see the mode menu at all
On your first turn, compare the credit balance before and after sending. That tells you how many requests fit in a day. I wrote about thinking in terms of the daily 5 in Rork's Free Tier Is 35 Credits a Month, but the Daily Cap of 5 Is What You Actually Hit.
Write the first message as "decided" and "undecided"
In any mode, putting the look in your first message means fewer questions come back; the documentation says so too. I split mine into two short lists.
[Decided]
- Purpose: a four-choice quiz on Japanese prefectures that an older relative opens daily
- Look: white background, large text, buttons easy to press with a finger
- Screens: question and result, nothing else
[Undecided]
- What happens when the answer is right
- Whether to keep a score history
Naming what is undecided lets Rork pick it up as a question. On the question card, colors and layouts come as pictures. "Surprise me" hands the choice to Rork, and "Other..." takes your own words. Leave the parts you have no opinion about to Rork, and put into words only what bothers you. That small bargain is what protects a day's allowance.
What to check after you decide
Moving from Design to Build does not erase the look. The approved colors, type, and screen decisions are saved to .rork/DESIGN.md and read again on later changes. You can open it from More, then Code, in the .rork folder. What gets built, though, is real code, not a copy of the pictures. Run the preview and ask for fixes in the usual way.
If too few screens come out, the Review Design card shows "Try design again" in place of Build. The first proposal has 3 or 4 screens, so plan on asking for the rest in chat after the build, and you will not be caught off guard.
For the day you want to go back after a build, I wrote When Rork's Fix Breaks the Screen Next Door: Choosing Between Undo, Revert, and Edit Message.
Something to try today
Before you send, write two lines under "decided" and two under "undecided", even on the edge of a sheet of paper. If the undecided list is longer, choose Plan. If it is only the look, choose Design. If it is a single point, choose Build.
As an indie developer, I find my hands start moving on a screen once I have written down the name of what I am unsure about. Once the unsure thing has a name, the mode is mostly chosen. I would like to keep to that line even on days when the credits are plentiful.