What Site Buddy is
Site Buddy gives each of your websites two things: a real, live development environment, and Buddy, an AI teammate who works in it. You tell Buddy what you want in plain words, and it does the work on a running copy of your site: editing pages and code, fixing what is broken, installing what it needs, checking the result in a browser, and showing it to you at a private preview address.
Who it’s for
Section titled “Who it’s for”- Business owners who want their website changed without learning how websites are built.
- Freelancers and agencies looking after many client sites, each in its own environment.
- Developers who want a capable pair of hands on the routine work, in a real stack they can inspect.
- Marketing and content teams who need pages, posts and fixes shipped without waiting in a queue.
What makes Site Buddy different
Section titled “What makes Site Buddy different”Buddy works on a real, running site, not a sketch of one. Every site gets its own live development environment: a web server, a database and the tools the site’s platform needs, running for real and reachable at its own preview address. When Buddy changes something, it is changing the actual site, and you can click through the result a moment later. There is nothing to install and nothing to set up on your computer.
Environments are ready for the platforms websites are actually built on:
| Environment | What you get |
|---|---|
| WordPress | A WordPress site, installed and ready to develop, with its own database. |
| Drupal | A Drupal site, scaffolded with Composer and installed with Drush. |
| Laravel | A fresh Laravel application wired to its own database. |
| Shopify theme | Your store’s theme, previewed by Shopify’s own development server with your real products, cart and checkout. |
| Netlify | A static site with serverless functions, previewed by Netlify’s own development server, so redirects, forms and functions behave as they do in production. |
| Node.js | A Node.js web app served by its own process: Express, Next.js and friends. |
| Generic PHP | A general-purpose environment (PHP, Node and a database) for any other code you bring. |
| Workspace | Buddy and its tools with no web server, for research, content and automation work. |
And around every environment:
- Undo is built in. Checkpoints capture the site’s files and database together, on a schedule and before anything risky, so any change can be rolled back.
- Your passwords stay with Site Buddy. Integrations connect analytics, search consoles, ad accounts, CRMs, storage, GitHub and more. Buddy uses them without ever seeing the keys.
- Buddy can see what your visitors see. With a browser connected, it checks its work against the running site, not just by reading code.
- Buddy learns your kind of site. Skills teach it how WordPress, Shopify, Laravel or your own house style work, and you choose which ones each site carries.
- It keeps working when you step away. Scheduled tasks run on their own: weekly link checks, monthly reports, routine updates.
- Your team works together. Share a site with teammates, and let clients view its preview with a one-time code, no account needed (previewing and sharing).
- Each site is private. Every site’s environment belongs to your organization alone, and Buddy’s access is limited to that site and what you connect to it.
What you’ll find in these docs
Section titled “What you’ll find in these docs”- New here? The quick start goes from your invitation to Buddy’s first change, and getting good results shows how to ask.
- Setting up a site? Creating a site walks through the wizard, and bringing an existing site covers moving one in.
- Finding your way around a site? The site workspace explains every pane.
- Want to steer how Buddy works? Chat and modes covers answering, analyzing, planning and building, and teaching Buddy about a site covers standing rules.
- Want Buddy to do more? Start with what Buddy can do, then add skills and integrations.
- Showing a client? Previewing and the lock page covers the private preview address.
- Running the organization? Team and roles, AI providers and settings.
Quick answers
Section titled “Quick answers”Do I need to know how to code? No. Ask for what you want in plain words. If you do code, everything Buddy does is visible: the files it changes, the commands it runs, and the site itself.
Does Buddy change my live website? Buddy works in the site’s development environment, and you see every change at its preview address first.
What if Buddy gets something wrong? Tell it, and it will fix it. Or restore a checkpoint: the files and the database go back together.
Can Buddy see my passwords? No. Credentials for connected services stay in Site Buddy, which adds them to Buddy’s requests on the way out.
Can I bring a site I already have? Yes. Start a site of the matching type, then give Buddy your code (from GitHub, or uploaded as files) and a copy of your database, and it sets the site up from them. A Generic PHP or Node.js environment takes code from nearly any platform. See bringing an existing site.
Can other people see my preview? Only people you let in. Your team goes straight through; anyone else needs a one-time code sent to an email address you have allowed. See previewing and the lock page.
Next: the quick start.