I don't have a website yet — build me one
If you don't have a website to move, bernard doesn't need one to start. Go to Account → Add a new site → Start from scratch and bernard sets you up with a one-page starter draft — an empty homepage waiting for your business's details, ready to build out with an interview rather than an import.
Way 1 — build it with Bernard
The simplest route is to let bernard run the interview for you.
- Open the workshop for your new site.
- Pick the "Build my new site" recipe.
- Answer a short interview about your business — what you do, who it's for, how you'd describe your own style.
- Bernard saves your answers as your style brief and drafts a homepage that matches it.
- Review the preview and press Approve to publish it.
Nothing goes live before that last step, so there's no wrong answer to give in the interview — you'll see exactly what it produced before anyone else does.
Way 2 — use your own AI
Prefer to work in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini? Connect it to bernard with your workshop keys — the same MCP connection used for every other AI edit on bernard, in Account → Your AI — then hand it one of these to get going:
- "Create a new site for 'Tracy's Pottery Workshops' on my bernard account, then interview me for my style brief before designing anything."
- "Read my style brief for [your site] and build my first-draft homepage from it — homepage only, draft only."
- "Review the draft homepage you built and tighten the copy to sound more like my style brief before I publish."
Use them in order, or drop straight into whichever step you're at — your AI can always read back your style brief and the current draft before it does anything else.
Why it's safe to just start
Everything from either route lands on a draft. Nothing is live until you press Approve on the preview, so there's no way to accidentally publish a half-finished site. The homepage comes first on purpose — get that right, then grow the rest of the site one page at a time, the same way you'd add any page later on (Add a new page).
The prompt
“Create a new site for [your business name] on my bernard account, then interview me for my style brief before designing anything.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- I don't have a website at all — can bernard still help?
- Yes. Go to Account → Add a new site → Start from scratch. There's no site to move, so bernard gives you a one-page starter draft to build from instead of importing anything.
- What's the difference between this and moving an existing site?
- Moving brings across pages, words and images that already exist. Starting from scratch has nothing to bring across — bernard hands you an empty one-page draft, and you (or your AI) fill it in through an interview about your business.
- Do I have to use the workshop, or can I use my own AI?
- Either. In the workshop, pick the 'Build my new site' recipe and answer the interview — bernard drafts the homepage for you. Or connect your own AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) with your workshop keys and hand it the starter prompts below.
- Will it build my whole site in one go?
- No, and that's deliberate. The first draft is the homepage only. Nothing publishes until you approve it, and every page after that is added the same way you'd add any page — one at a time, each on its own preview.
- What if I don't like the first draft?
- Reject it or ask for changes — nothing is live yet. The draft only becomes your real site once you press Approve, and you can keep asking for edits as many times as you like before that.