Frequently asked questions
The questions Bridge users ask most often, with current canonical answers. Grouped by topic.
About the product
What is Bridge?
Bridge is a mobile-first notes-and-thinking workspace. You capture raw, scattered software ideas in the app; Bridge classifies them, finds semantic relationships between them, and generates implementation-ready specs — schema, API contract, component tree, data flow, constraints, acceptance criteria, and a plan document — that any coding agent can implement against. See What Bridge is for the longer overview.
Do I need an API key to use Bridge?
No — not to get started. Every account gets 5 AI runs a month at Bridge's expense.
One run reads a single note and decides whether it's an idea worth developing or a reference to keep. If it's an idea, the run also writes its expansion — a short paragraph that draws out what you meant, so the note becomes searchable, connectable to related notes, and ready to turn into a plan. Reference notes use a run too, even though they don't get an expansion.
Runs reset on the 1st of each month and need a verified email address. Past those 5, you bring your own API key.
What does "BYOAPI" mean and why?
BYOAPI means bring your own API key. Beyond the 5 free monthly runs, Bridge doesn't resell AI inference: you supply your own API key — Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google Gemini — and those AI costs are charged directly to your provider account by your provider. Bridge orchestrates the calls and charges a flat subscription for that orchestration layer only.
This keeps Bridge's pricing predictable: you pay for what you use at provider cost, with no markup baked in. It also lets you choose your own models and control your own data relationship with the AI provider.
A key is honored on a paid plan. On Discover and above, your key gives unlimited classification and expansion. On the Free tier you stay at 5 runs a month whether or not you've added a key.
What happens when I run out of free runs?
Notes you capture after the cap say they couldn't be classified. Nothing is lost — the note text is saved exactly as you wrote it. Two ways to clear the backlog:
- Add an API key on a paid plan, then pull down to refresh on the Notes tab. The waiting notes reprocess on your key.
- Wait for the reset on the 1st of the month, then pull to refresh.
Notes longer than 2,000 characters are truncated for a free run — the app flags this on the note. On your own key there's no such limit.
How much will I actually spend on AI costs?
It depends on your usage and which models you point Bridge at. A moderate usage profile — 5 notes per day, 5 Build Plans per month, 10 Chat sessions per month, daily clustering — costs roughly:
- All Haiku 4.5: ~$4/month
- Suggested defaults (Haiku for background, Sonnet 4.6 for Build Plan and Chat): ~$6/month
- All Sonnet 4.6: ~$12/month
- All Opus 4.8: ~$20/month
Bridge will show a per-feature usage breakdown in Settings → Usage so you always know where costs are coming from.
Those figures are for AI run on your own key. The 5 free monthly runs cost you nothing — Bridge pays for them — so the Free tier stays genuinely free: your only cost is your time. If you add your own key on the Free tier you can also open one chat, which uses your key like any other AI feature.
What does the LTD ("Lifetime") tier actually mean?
"Lifetime" means the operational lifetime of Bridge, not the lifetime of the universe. Bridge commits to operating the service for a minimum of three years from your LTD purchase date, to providing 90 days written notice before any discontinuation, and to making your data available for export during that notice period. LTD purchases are final sale. This follows the SaaS industry standard for lifetime deals.
Will prices change?
Launch prices are locked. Bridge may raise prices for new signups around six months post-launch, but existing customers — including anyone who signs up during the founders window — are grandfathered at their original rate. The 20% founders discount on yearly plans is permanent: founders yearly subscribers stay at the founders rate for the life of the subscription, as long as it doesn't lapse.
Where can I buy each tier?
| Channel | All tiers except LTD | LTD | |---|---|---| | Web (bridgedev.io) | ✓ via Stripe | ✓ via Stripe | | iOS App Store | ✓ via IAP | — (Apple does not allow lifetime subscriptions) | | Google Play | ✓ via Play Billing | — (same reason) |
Buy on one platform, sign in on another, your tier appears instantly. One entitlement everywhere.
When does Bridge launch?
Public launch is early October 2026. Founding members get access ahead of public launch and get first access to leave feedback before general availability.
What platforms does Bridge support?
iOS and Android at launch. The bridgedev.io web surface is currently marketing only — the workspace itself is mobile.
How is my data handled?
Notes are stored on your device and in your own private, isolated space on Bridge's infrastructure to enable the service. Bridge does not sell user data. API keys are held in encrypted secret storage, separate from your notes.
Where your note text goes when AI runs depends on which path processed it:
- On your own API key — expansion, clustering, chat, and Build Plan send note content to the provider you chose (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google Gemini), per their API terms.
- On a free monthly run — the note text is processed by Google Vertex AI under Bridge's own account, because Bridge is paying for that inference rather than your provider.
Full details at /legal/privacy.
How long is my data export available?
Seven days. When you tap Export my data in Settings, Bridge generates a zip and hands it to your device's share sheet. Inside is a machine-readable copy of your notes, chats (with their messages and referenced notes), plan manifests, app settings, legal-consent record, and subscription status. Plan file contents and uploaded artifacts are not included — email privacy@bridgedev.io if you need those. The generated file is deleted seven days after it is created, and the row in Settings shows how long is left.
Exporting again replaces the previous file and restarts the seven days. The export is a convenience copy, not a backup — save it somewhere you control if you want to keep it.
About notes and constellations
Why can't I edit a note after I capture it?
The raw text of a captured note is immutable in the current version. The reason is cascade safety: if you edited a note, everything downstream that depended on it — its expansion, the constellation it belonged to, any chat that referenced it, any Build Plan that included it — would need to re-run or get re-validated. We're researching cascade re-processing and it will likely ship post-launch. For now: the on-capture scan and expansion can re-run, but the source text stays as you typed it.
How long until my note shows up in the graph?
About thirty seconds for the initial scan to extract URLs, hashtags, and code blocks, and to draw connections to related notes. On Discover tier and above, the general expansion usually finishes within one to two minutes after that. Clustering runs in batches; expect new constellations to surface within five to ten minutes of adding notes that warrant a new cluster.
If you want to force the graph to catch up immediately, pull down at the top of the Notes tab — see The graph view.
What if I disagree with the auto-classification?
Tap the classification chip on the note detail page. You can override Expandable → Reference or Reference → Expandable. Bridge doesn't push back; your override is the source of truth from that point.
My note shows as an orphan instead of in a constellation — why?
Constellations form once Bridge sees three or more semantically-related notes. If your note is the first or second of a theme, it sits as an orphan until enough siblings show up. Keep capturing related notes; clustering will connect them. If you're certain the note should be in an existing constellation, you can manually assert an edge via long-press → Connect to... (see The graph view).
About Build Plan output
Can I regenerate a Build Plan?
Yes. Start a venture from the same note again. The new run uses your current context — latest notes, latest expansions, latest user-behavior memory. The old version stays in the Plan tab archive so you can pick which version to download or share. Build Plan regeneration is unlimited on Build, Refine, and Refine LTD tiers.
Can I edit the plan files directly outside Bridge?
Yes. The files are markdown — you can open them in any editor and change anything. Once you've edited outside Bridge, the in-app Plan tab will show the stale version unless you regenerate. The Refine-tier in-app diff-approval flow only works on plan files Bridge still has the canonical version of (see Refining a plan). For most users: edit in Bridge if you're going to keep iterating; edit externally only once the plan is feeding production code and you want to keep changes in your repo's history.
What if my coding agent doesn't read AGENTS.md automatically?
Most modern coding agents read a project context file at the project root by default — AGENTS.md is the emerging cross-tool standard for that file. If your agent doesn't pick it up automatically, point it at the file explicitly in your first prompt: "Read AGENTS.md at the project root and follow its working agreement." The content is portable — same reading order, same instructions, no tool-specific magic.
Still have a question?
Press ⌘K (or Ctrl-K) to search the docs. If the answer isn't here, reach out — Bridge is small enough that we read every email. Contact details on the About page.