An AI-built prototype is ready for engineering review when someone else can reproduce its main journey, identify the reviewed state, and understand the known defects and unresolved decisions. It does not need to be production-ready or visually complete.
Establish the handoff unit
Lovable describes a project as one app in a workspace with a single project owner. Its contents include chat, preview, code, version history, and settings; edits are saved automatically to version history.
Use that app-level context to organise the handoff rather than forwarding a long conversation alone. As editorial advice, identify the owner, workspace context, and particular saved state being reviewed. Automatic saving does not establish that a state has passed engineering checks.
Assemble the engineering-entry packet
Include six concise records:
- Purpose: intended users, primary task, and explicit non-goals.
- Reproduction: synthetic inputs, starting conditions, and expected outcomes.
- Project context: owner, review reference, and relevant implementation areas.
- Known defects: symptoms, reproduction cases, severity rationale, and workarounds if any.
- Architecture questions: unresolved storage, authentication, integration, or deployment decisions.
- Review request: the specific judgement needed from engineering and who will act on it.
Keep observed behaviour separate from intended behaviour. Label simulated services and placeholder responses clearly. Do not put credentials, customer records, or private material into the packet; synthetic fixtures should be sufficient for an initial review.
Hypothetical room-booking handoff
Suppose a Hyderabad community centre has a prototype for requesting meeting rooms. The packet contains three fictional rooms, two available time slots, and one deliberately conflicting request.
The primary acceptance case is booking an available room and receiving an unambiguous request status. The conflict case should not appear confirmed. A known defect states that refreshing the confirmation screen loses the displayed request reference.
The architecture questions ask where bookings should be stored and how competing requests should eventually be resolved. These are open design decisions, not claims that the prototype already handles concurrency.
Evaluate entry readiness by asking a reviewer to reproduce both cases from the written packet without verbal rescue. If the reviewer can distinguish the working path, defect, and unresolved design choice, the prototype is useful review material even though it is unfinished.
Stop polishing when review evidence is complete
Move to engineering review once the main cases are reproducible and uncertainties are visible. Conversely, stop the handoff if the demonstrated state cannot be identified or if simulated behaviour is presented as a completed integration.
If access is the remaining blocker, check the coding catalog for access format and saved terms before buying. Marketplace account/code/token offers are not proof of official subscription equivalence or suitable team ownership arrangements.
Sources and scope
Source material checked 29 October 2026; features/policies may change. Lovable project overview establishes project structure, ownership, and version-history saving. The entry packet and room-booking scenario are hypothetical editorial criteria, not a production-readiness certification.