Frequently asked questions

What is Virex?

Virex is a build-generation platform: you describe what you want to build in plain language, the engine produces a real downloadable Next.js or Expo project repository — code, config, preview, the lot. You can host that repo yourself, extend it with your own developer, or continue iterating inside the Virex workspace via prompt-driven edits and a repair loop.

Who is Virex for?

• Founders who want a polished starting point without spending two weekends scaffolding.
• Designers and product people who want to see a working version of their idea before involving developers.
• Developers who want to skip the boring 80% of project setup and jump straight to the differentiating 20%.
• Agencies who need to ship multiple client projects fast without copy-pasting from previous repos.

How is Virex different from Bolt, Lovable, or v0?

Three concrete differences:

• You get a real downloadable repo. Bolt and Lovable run your project in their cloud sandbox; v0 generates components in their UI. Virex generates a Next.js + Expo zip you take with you and host anywhere.
• Builds run through an engine, not a single AI call. Standard Engine parses your prompt into structured intent (project type, vibes, audience, tone) — works in any language. Path router picks site / app / creative lane. Section selection samples a curated library; Deep Engine customizes each section. The same prompt twice gives different but coherent results, not a fresh experiment that drifts on every retry.
• The visual baseline starts higher than what a model alone can output from scratch: shadcn/ui patterns, the standard Expo / React Native ecosystem, and our own curated section library (~106 sections, growing). Generated apps are commercially deployable — see the Code license docs for the full legal picture.

Is the demo the full build engine?

No. The public demo is a restricted preview: one throw-away build, no zip download, no edit mode, no continuation flow. It exists so you can validate direction and visual style before paying. Once you're on Free, Starter, Premium, or Pro every build is a real zip you keep, with the full preview pipeline + workspace tools. Free tier ships with a single take-home build and a "Built with Virex" footer credit.

What does each plan include?

• Free (€0): create an account and ship 1 lifetime build with the Standard Engine. Watermarked footer, downloadable repo, no edits. The fastest way to taste the engine and walk away with something.
• Starter (€39/month): 4,000 monthly engine credits — pool covers ~13 builds + ~50 edits or any mix. Unlimited free cosmetic edits (color/sizing/spacing). Standard + light Deep Engine. 1 Supabase schema sample per month. 90-day retention, 72h email support.
• Premium (€119/month) — main plan: everything in Starter, plus 25,000 monthly engine credits, Deep Engine on every pass with automatic Engine Plus rescue, capability features library, open-ended codegen for novel features, inline text edits (free, no LLM call), unlimited schemas with RLS, 2 concurrent builds. 180-day retention, 48h email support.
• Pro (€259/month): everything in Premium, plus 80,000 monthly engine credits (3.2× Premium for high-volume agency workflows), opt-in Best mode edits (forced-Opus for tricky cases), priority queue, 4 concurrent builds. 360-day retention, 24h priority support.
• Enterprise: custom limits, SSO, contractual SLAs, dedicated infrastructure or on-prem options. Email enterprise@virex.build.

See the pricing page for the live numbers and upgrade flow.

What does the Free tier actually let me do?

One full build with the Standard Engine — the same engine path Starter uses. Sign up, verify your email, run one build: prompt understanding → template selection → real generated pages → downloadable repo with a watermarked footer. No credit card, no edits, no schema, no saved projects after that.

Free is intentionally a one-shot trial — enough to judge the engine and walk away with a real (watermarked) repo, not a sandbox you can live in. Most users move straight to Premium because that's where Virex actually earns its money.

Are subscriptions monthly or annual?

Monthly by default. Annual billing is being added with a discount on yearly commitment — check the pricing page for current rates. You can switch between monthly and annual at any time from your account settings.

Can I get a refund?

Subscriptions are non-refundable except where required by consumer law. Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and EU/Dutch consumer rights still apply where they cannot be excluded by contract. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period; you keep access until then. Email VIREX@civicai-solutions.com with your account email and the reason if you believe a refund is owed. Full refund clause is in section 6 of the Terms.

What payment methods do you accept?

All major credit and debit cards via Stripe. Stripe handles the actual card data — Virex never sees full card numbers. SEPA, iDEAL, and other regional payment methods may be available depending on your country.

Why does the first build take 15-30 seconds?

That window is the full V2 pipeline running. Stages:

• Intake — Claude Haiku parses your prompt into structured intent: project type, vibes, audience, tone, formality, energy, color hints, features. Multilingual.
• Path routing — picks the right lane: site (1) for marketing pages, app (2) for foundation-backed apps with auth/dashboards, creative (3) for prompts the curated library can't handle.
• Design tokens — preset selected based on intent (corporate-navy, warm-amber, neon-cyber, …) and customised with your brand color hint. Sets up the entire --virex-* CSS variable namespace.
• Section selection (path 1+2) — curated section library, scored against your intent. Same prompt twice gives different but coherent results.
• Section customization — Claude Sonnet 4.6 rewrites copy and props per section, conform the tone the intake captured.
• Creative path (path 3) — the engine generates an outline, then each section from scratch with validation. On Premium and Pro, hard failures escalate to Engine Plus automatically.
• Assembly — foundation tree (path 2) gets copied; sections layer onto a route group; mobile screens auto-wire into the navigator. Static preview HTML and build report prepared.
• Validation + delivery — every section passes a structural check. Final output: a downloadable Next.js or Expo repo, real and self-contained.

Subsequent builds and edits are faster because the foundation index is already loaded and the engine reuses cached context where it can.

How does the engine work — and where does AI fit in?

Virex is an engine, not an AI wrapper. AI handles language and copy; the engine handles project structure, design tokens, foundation templates, validation, and assembly. By drawing the line where AI is strongest, the output stays both polished and reliable across builds.

Three lanes the engine routes between automatically: Standard Engine (Free + Starter) for variation, intake, and lighter passes. Deep Engine (Premium) for the bulk of every build, with Engine Plus layered onto deep creative passes when a section needs it. Engine Plus (Pro) runs the strongest lane across every pass with priority queue on top. You never pick a lane — the plan decides which one your prompts run through.

The engine learns and improves over time — the curated section library grows, foundation templates expand, selection logic gets smarter. For users that means builds become faster and better over time without you doing anything. We aim for the best output at the lowest cost so we can keep delivering more value at fair pricing.

What if a build fails?

Two layers of recovery. Section validation: every section passes a structural check (parses, has required pieces, sane length, no banned vars). Failed sections retry; on Premium and Pro, hard failures escalate to Engine Plus automatically. Repair mode: after the build is delivered you can paste an error message or describe a failure and the engine focuses on the affected files with tighter scope and stricter validation. Repair attempts don't burn full-build credits. Worst case: a build can drop one or two creative sections rather than fail entirely — the rest of the page still ships.

Can I rebuild the same prompt and get a different result?

Yes. The engine mixes your unique build ID into deterministic seeds, so two runs of "blog for climate journalism" produce different titles, image picks, layout variants, and tag sets — while staying internally consistent within each individual build. Layouts are picked from a deterministic-but-rotating set, so you can iterate by simply rebuilding without changing the prompt.

Do I own the code Virex generates?

Yes — fully and forever. Every build's output is yours: keep it, modify it, sell it, open-source it, deploy it commercially. Virex retains no claim. Third-party libraries inside the build (React, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, etc.) carry their own open-source licences which we surface in each project's README. Full ownership clause: Terms section 8.

Can I use my generated code commercially?

Yes. The generated code is yours — sell it, ship it as a SaaS, charge users, license to clients. Standard open-source dependencies (Next.js, Tailwind, Supabase JS, Stripe SDK) ship under permissive licenses that have always allowed commercial use. We don't insert a Virex runtime, we don't claim authorship of your output, and there's no clause that revokes your rights when you stop your subscription. See the Code license docs for the full legal picture.

Are my prompts confidential?

Yes. Prompts are stored to operate the Service (so you can re-run, edit, repair) but they are not shared with third parties for marketing, training, or research outside the Virex engine. Anonymised aggregate patterns may be used to improve the engine internally (e.g. "this prompt structure tends to fail validation → improve the section selector") but never your specific prompts. Privacy Policy section 3.

Can I use Virex output for client work?

Yes. Generated content is yours under our Terms — you can deliver it as part of a client engagement, charge for it, or open-source it. We ask only that you keep the existing third-party licence files in place (React, Tailwind, etc.) per their respective open-source terms. Free-tier builds carry a "Built with Virex" credit which you should preserve unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

What data do you collect?

• Account data: email, optional name + company, encrypted password (handled by Supabase Auth).
• Billing: Stripe customer ID, subscription status, plan tier — never full card numbers.
• Build & usage: prompts you submit, generated outputs, IP address (last seen), timestamps.
• Security: failed login attempts, rate-limit triggers, terms-acceptance audit log.

Full breakdown: Privacy Policy section 2.

Is my data sent to AI providers for model training?

No. Virex sends prompts to OpenAI and Anthropic API endpoints for inference (the actual answering of your prompt). Both providers' API terms explicitly exclude API inputs from being used to train their models. Your prompts are not used to improve their public models.

How long do you keep my builds?

Specific retention windows:

• Active subscription: builds retained for the lifetime of your subscription. Older builds may move to cold storage but remain downloadable.
• 30 days after subscription cancellation: build artifacts deleted. Re-subscribe within 30 days to regain access.
• Up to 7 years: account profile + billing records (legal/tax obligation).
• Permanent termination (for AUP violation): build artifacts may be deleted immediately.

Where is my data stored?

Account + build data: Supabase (Frankfurt region for EU customers). Hosting + edge compute: Vercel (US-Iowa primary, global edge cache). Payments: Stripe (Ireland for EU customers, US otherwise). LLM inference: OpenAI + Anthropic (US data centers — covered by EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses for EU transfers).

How do I export or delete my data?

Export your build zips at any time from the dashboard. To request full data export or erasure under GDPR / Australian Privacy Act, email VIREX@civicai-solutions.com with subject "Privacy Request — Export" or "Privacy Request — Erasure" and your account email. We respond within 30 days as required by GDPR Article 12(3).

What happens if my account gets flagged?

We use two graduated levels:

• Block (temporary pause): builds halted, login restricted, email sent within 1 hour with the reason category. Most blocks resolve within 5 business days; the account auto-reinstates if no further action is needed.
• Ban (permanent termination): account terminated, email sent within 24 hours, do-not-onboard list applied. Reserved for serious violations (CSAM, terrorism, fraud, repeat block violations).

Both can be appealed within 30 days by emailing VIREX@civicai-solutions.com. Appeals are acknowledged within 2 business days and resolved within 5. Full block/ban policy: Terms section 16.

What's prohibited under the AUP?

The full Acceptable Use Policy is at /legal/aup. High-level: no CSAM, no terrorism content, no malware/phishing/scams, no infringing paid content of others, no scraping or rate-limit abuse, no reverse-engineering Virex's engine. Keep your prompts about real product development and you're fine.

How do I report abuse?

Email VIREX@civicai-solutions.com with subject "Abuse report" and a description. For CSAM or imminent harm, mark the email "URGENT" and we will prioritise. We acknowledge reports within 2 business days.

How do you secure my account?

TLS 1.2+ in transit, encrypted storage at rest in Supabase, hashed passwords (bcrypt), audit logging of admin actions, role-based access controls, periodic security reviews. We recommend you use a unique strong password and enable email-based recovery. If you believe your account is compromised, contact us immediately.

What can mobile builds do today?

The mobile-consumer and mobile-utility archetypes generate Expo (React Native) projects with:

• Tab-based navigation skeleton
• Home / list / detail / profile screens scaffolded
• Components extracted from Ignite, gluestack-ui, react-native-paper, and Expo examples
• Native styling using StyleSheet.create

What's still rough?

• Static preview shows a placeholder, not the actual app — Expo apps don't render in StackBlitz.
• Slot composer's mobile coverage is thinner than web (~6 RN foundations vs ~80 web foundations).
• No equivalent of the static HTML snapshot pipeline yet — that's a near-term roadmap item.

Can Virex deploy my app for me?

Not yet directly — you deploy the generated zip yourself (Vercel: drag-and-drop or `vercel` CLI; Netlify, Render, Railway also work). One-click deploy is on the roadmap. The generated repo is plug-and-play: add your env vars, run `npm install`, you're live.

Can I use my own database / API?

Yes. Generated builds include Supabase wiring by default but the data layer is replaceable — swap the Supabase client for Prisma, Drizzle, raw SQL, or any other backend. Your generated code is yours; nothing is locked into our infrastructure.

Do you offer custom development?

Not at scale. If you need bespoke engine work or a heavily customised Pro deployment, email us — we'll see if we can help or refer you to a partner.

What about white-labeling Virex for an agency?

Reseller agreements are possible for agencies running Virex on behalf of multiple clients. Contact us with your use case and rough volume.