Introduction to Weldr

What is Weldr?

Weldr is an AI-native application builder. Describe the product you want in chat, watch a live Next.js app spin up in your browser, and decide exactly how much of the generated code you want to own. Progressive ownership keeps you in control—every surface (database, API, domain logic, UI, styling, infrastructure) can stay managed by Weldr, share responsibility with custom blocks, or move entirely under your ownership with contract validation.

Why Teams Use Weldr

• Ship fast without lock-in – Generate a working SaaS app in under an hour and eject critical logic whenever it becomes strategic.

• Preview as you build – WebContainers render the app inside the browser, so product, design, and engineering review changes in real time.

• Contracts keep you safe – TypeScript contract adapters help ensure that ejected code stays compatible with generated surfaces.

• Governance that scales – CLI and policy hooks (sync, contracts check, ownership manifests) make it simple to enforce review gates and deployment hygiene.

The Hosted Journey

Chat the vision – Start a conversation around your problem space. Weldr extracts entities, relationships, workflows, and UI hints in real time.

Refine together – Stakeholders can comment, adjust copy, or request features while the preview updates live.

Own the right surfaces – Flip surfaces to Extended or Ejected directly in the Ownership panel to inject custom logic without losing regen safety.

Ship with confidence – Export to Git, run weldr sync/weldr contracts check, and fold the output into your existing pipelines.

Hosted vs. Self-Hosted

• Free Cloud (default) – Fastest onboarding, automatic upgrades, generous regen limits, and access to all ownership modes from day one.

• Weldr Pro ($30/mo, early access) – Higher usage caps, shared templates, SLA-backed preview capacity, and roadmap access to policy automation.

• Enterprise – Managed environments, compliance attestations, and hybrid hosting options (contact us for design partners).

• Self-Host (advanced) – Clone the repo, configure Postgres + OpenRouter, and run the stack locally. Ideal for internal testing or air-gapped environments while we finalize the open-source split.

Key Concepts

• Surfaces – Logical areas of the app (db, api, domain_logic, ui, styling, infra, auth, ci). Ownership is configured in weldr.ownership.yaml or through the UI.

• Managed / Extended / Ejected – Ownership modes determine how regeneration behaves and how contracts are validated.

• Contracts – Types that describe the API between generated code and ejected modules. Weldr scaffolds adapters and validates them on every regen.

• Leases – Metadata tags at the top of generated files (@weldr, @custom) that signal what Weldr can and cannot rewrite.

Next Steps

• Walk through your first build in the Quick Start guide.

• Configure local prerequisites if you plan to self-host via the installation guide.

• Dive deeper into ownership patterns in progressive-ownership.md.

Questions? Start a thread in Slack (#weldr-docs) or open a GitHub discussion with the docs label.