Turn your Bolt.new prototype into a production app

Export is the handoff, not the launch

A downloaded Bolt project can contain the interface and application shell while still depending on temporary data, browser-only state or environment assumptions. Treat the export as a starting codebase that needs an ownership and runtime audit.

The first question is not whether the screens look finished. It is whether the project can be built from a clean checkout by someone who did not create it.

Common gaps after Bolt.new

The most frequent problems appear at the boundaries that a prototype can hide: persistence, permissions, secrets, external services and deployment configuration.

• In-memory or sample data replaced by migrations and real queries.
• Authentication linked to account-level authorization.
• API keys and service credentials removed from browser bundles.
• Webhooks, payments and emails made safe to retry.
• Build errors and platform-specific environment assumptions fixed.
• Logs, health checks and a rollback path added before launch.

Keep the useful prototype, replace the risky shortcuts

There is no reason to throw away a useful interface simply because the backend is incomplete. Preserve the flows that communicate the product, then replace mock boundaries one at a time with code the team can test and maintain.

If the export is too tangled to operate, the engineer should show that with a small audit and propose a bounded replacement rather than asking for a blind rewrite.