> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.newly.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Start from your Lovable or GitHub app > Turn an app you already have into a mobile app. Newly reads it for reference and never changes it. Already have a web app, a Lovable project, or a backend on GitHub? Newly can build the mobile version of it. Your existing app is only ever **read**: Newly builds the mobile app in a new project with its own code, and never writes to your repository or your Lovable project. Both starters are on Home, under the message box: **GitHub to Mobile App** and **Lovable to Mobile App**. ## How it works Press a starter. One box does everything: search your repositories, or paste a URL. * **A public repository**: paste its `github.com` URL and select **Use this public repository**. * **One of your repositories, private ones included**: pick it from the list. If GitHub isn't connected yet, select **Connect GitHub**; your browser opens GitHub, and your repositories appear in the same window once you finish. * **Lovable only, a published app**: paste its `lovable.app` address and select **Use this published app**. Select **Check repo** (**Check** on the Lovable starter). Newly reads the repository and tells you what it found, for example *"A Lovable app. Newly will build the mobile version on the same backend and never change this repository."* Nothing has been created yet. Select **Build the mobile app**. Newly creates a new project, and the agent starts by studying your app's design (screens, layout, colours, navigation and flows) and telling you what it understood and what it plans to build. If the app needs something only you can provide, such as an API key or a sign-in redirect URL, the agent lists each one and tells you where to set it: secrets go in **Settings**, **Project**, **Backend secrets**, and provider settings in that provider's dashboard. It never asks you to paste a secret into the chat. The list shows which GitHub account is connected. **Disconnect GitHub**, under the list, removes the Newly app from your GitHub account. It asks you to confirm first, because projects synced to GitHub then go back to Newly's own copy, and projects built from your private repositories can't read them until you connect again. The list shows your most recently updated repositories first, grouped by owner. Filter it with **All**, **Public** and **Private**, or type to search. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move through the list, Enter selects, and Esc clears the search. ## Your app stays reference only, for the whole project Your repository becomes the project's **source**: something the agent reads, never something it edits. * Every chat in the project gets a fresh copy of your repository, so changes you make in Lovable or on GitHub reach the agent in your next chat, with nothing to press. * If the copy can't be fetched (you removed the Newly GitHub app, or took away its access to the repository), the agent says so rather than guessing, and tells you what to fix. Once you reconnect GitHub or restore access, tell the agent: it fetches the repository again in the same chat, with no need to start a new one. Reconnecting GitHub is picked up by every project you started from your repositories. * The copy is read only to Newly. The access Newly uses for it cannot push to GitHub, and anything the agent changes in its copy is thrown away at the start of the next chat. * The mobile app's code lives in the project itself, like any other Newly project. You can put **that** on GitHub in its own new repository from [Connect GitHub](/code/github). * Your source repository can never be connected as a project's own repository, so nothing Newly builds can sync into it. ## Lovable apps A Lovable app usually runs on Supabase. When you start from its GitHub repository, the agent reads the Supabase connection, the database tables, and the edge functions, and builds the mobile app against **the same Supabase project**. Your users, data and permissions work the same on the phone as on the web. To get your Lovable project's repository: in Lovable, open **GitHub** and connect the project. Lovable creates the repository in your GitHub account; start from that. **Sign-in with Google, Apple or a magic link needs one change in Supabase.** Add the mobile app's link scheme to your Supabase project's allowed redirect URLs (Authentication, then URL Configuration). Without it, those sign-in methods fail on the phone. Email and password sign-in works without it. ### Starting from the published app instead If you paste the `lovable.app` address, Newly has no code to read. The agent opens your live app in a browser, goes through its screens, and builds the mobile app to match. That works for the look and the flows. For the backend, the data model and the Supabase connection, start from the repository instead. ## What isn't supported yet | Not yet | What to do instead | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Continuing an app that is already Expo or React Native.** The check says so and stops. | Describe the app to the agent in a new project, or wait for this to arrive as its own flow. | | **Repositories owned by an organization** don't appear until the Newly GitHub app is installed on that organization too. | Select **Manage access on GitHub** under the list, and install the app on the organization. | | **A private repository by URL** without connecting GitHub. | Select **Connect GitHub** and pick it from the list. | | **Choosing a branch or a subfolder.** Newly reads the repository's default branch, from its root. | Make the branch you want the default on GitHub, or start from a repository with the app at its root. | | **Changing or removing a project's source** after the project is created. | Start a new project from the other repository. | | **Writing anything back to your repository**, such as a pull request with the mobile app. | Put the mobile app in its own repository with [Connect GitHub](/code/github). | | **Newly for Mac local chats.** A project started from your app always runs in the cloud, where the copy of your repository lives. | Use a cloud chat for these projects. | | **Lovable Cloud projects and sign-in redirects.** If Lovable manages your Supabase project, you may not be able to add the redirect URL above. | Use email and password sign-in in the mobile app, or move the Supabase project to your own account. | You can check up to 30 repositories an hour. ## If something goes wrong | You see | What it means | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Connect GitHub to see your repositories** | GitHub isn't connected, or the Newly app was removed from your GitHub account. Connect again. | | **Newly cannot see this repository** | The Newly GitHub app wasn't given access to it. Select **Manage access on GitHub** and add it. | | **That is the published app** | You pasted a `lovable.app` address into the GitHub starter. Use the Lovable starter, or paste the repository. | | **Couldn't load your repositories** | GitHub didn't answer. Select **Try again**; pasting a URL still works meanwhile. | ## Related pages Put the mobile app's own code in a repository you own. How the app's backend works in Newly. Build your first app from a prompt. Get better results from the agent.