Make changes safely
Editing a website by asking an AI is genuinely safe on bernard — but a few habits make the difference between tidy changes and a preview full of surprises. The short version: one job at a time, small batches, and check the preview properly before you approve.
How it works
- Get your access prompt. Log in to bernard, open your site, and copy the prompt from Edit with AI (it contains a key that works for 12 hours).
- Paste it into your AI — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whichever you already use — then ask for one change at a time, in your own words or using the prompt above.
- Approve. The AI sends back a preview link. Look at every page it changed — not just the last one — then press Approve, and it's live.
The habits that keep you safe
Stick to one problem per session. A session that fixes a typo, rewrites your bio and reshuffles the menu produces a draft that's hard to check; three short sessions produce three previews you can each glance at and approve with confidence. Remember that the draft accumulates everything until you approve — every change the AI makes in the session goes onto the same draft, and one Approve publishes the lot. So before you press it, walk the preview like a visitor would: the page you asked about, plus anything else the AI mentions touching. If something's off, reject the draft and ask again — nothing has gone live, and bernard keeps a full year of history regardless.
If you're the AI doing this: read the page before you edit it, keep your edits as small as the request, and don't "improve" things the owner didn't mention. Tell the owner clearly which pages you changed when you hand over the preview link, and remind them that everything in the draft publishes together when they approve.
The prompt
“Before you change anything, read the page first and tell me what you're going to do. Make only the change I asked for — [describe the one change] — then give me the preview link so I can check it.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Log in to bernard → your site → Edit with AI → copy your access prompt, paste that into your AI first, then ask the above.
Questions people ask
- Is it safe to let an AI edit my website?
- On a bernard-hosted site, yes — the AI can only write to a draft. Nothing reaches your live site until you open the preview link and press Approve, and bernard keeps a full year of history, so anything can be put back.
- What's the safest way to make website changes with AI?
- One problem per session, in small batches. Ask for the change, check the preview properly — every page the AI touched — and only then approve. If anything looks wrong, reject the draft and ask again.
- What happens if I ask for several changes before approving?
- They all accumulate on the same draft, and one Approve publishes everything at once. That's fine for related changes, but it means you should check the whole preview, not just the last thing you asked for.