--- title: Create a site with AI type: how-to section: drive summary: Describe the site you want, attach the images and documents it should be built from, and Drive publishes a first version you can open and keep editing. sources: - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/content-platform-create-with-ai-dialog.tsx - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/content-platform-site-create-choices.tsx - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/ask-ai/content-platform-create-with-ai-run.tsx - evolve-front-end/lib/content-platform/create-with-ai.ts - evolve-front-end/lib/content-platform/create-with-ai-attachments.ts - evolve-front-end/app/i18n/locales/en/content-platform.json verified: at: 2026-09-28 env: code by: content-lane-drive ttl_days: 45 related: [drive/upload-a-site, drive/edit-a-site, drive/link-access] --- Open **Sites** and choose **Create with AI**. Describe the site you want in ordinary words, attach anything it should be built from, and choose **Create site**. Drive builds a first version, publishes it, and opens the site's details page so you can watch the build and carry on editing. ## Describe the site 1. Open **Sites** in the left rail. 2. Choose **Create with AI**, described as **Combine existing content and files**. 3. Type what the site is for under **What would you like your site to do?**. Write it the way you would describe it to a colleague, for example: `A one-page site for the Department of Computer Science, with an about section, our four research groups, and contact details.` 4. Check **Save to**. It opens on the place you came from and offers **My Drive** or any managed folder under **Spaces**. Set it before you create: everything else here can be undone, but a site made in the wrong place has to be made again. 5. Choose **Create site**. The button stays unavailable until a destination has resolved. **Preparing My Drive** beside **Save to** means Drive is still setting up your personal area; it clears on its own. ## Attach images and documents **Add images or documents** attaches the material the site is built from: the pictures it should show, and the documents whose words it should be written from. A CV, a set of notes or a programme outline all work. - Up to six files, each at most 4 MB, and at most 4 MB in total. - Images: `gif`, `jpg`, `jpeg`, `png`, `webp`. - Documents: `pdf`, `docx`, `csv`, `md`, `txt`. Each document carries a checkbox reading **Offer *name* on the site as a download**. Leave it unchecked to use the document only as source material for the words on the page; check it to also publish the file for visitors to download. ## Watch the build and open the result Creating the site takes you to its details page. The side panel lists **Build steps** and reports the one running: 1. **Setting up your site** 2. **Building your site** — the long one; it can take a few minutes 3. **Publishing the first version** 4. **Naming your site** — the name comes from the page that was written, so the site is called **Untitled site** until this step finishes 5. **Generating the public link** The panel reports **Completed in** with the time the run took, then a **Summary** of what was built. The build runs in this browser tab. Moving around Drive while it runs is fine — it follows you, and the site's details page keeps reporting it — but closing the tab or reloading the page stops it. Coming back to a build that was stopped that way, the panel reads **This build stopped before it finished.** and **Try again** restarts it. The site is published as soon as the run finishes, and it holds a public link that grants read access to anyone who has it and expires after 30 days. See [Share a file or folder by link](/help/drive/link-access) before you send it on. ## Change it afterwards The site is an ordinary site once it exists. Use **Edit with AI** on its details page to describe the next change, or **Edit site** to work on the files yourself, and publish when you are happy with it. See [Change a site in plain English](/help/drive/edit-a-site). ## If it did not work - **The site could not be created.** means the site record was never made. Nothing was filed. Try again from **Sites**. - **The site could not be built.** appears in the side panel when the build itself failed. **Try again** re-runs it against the same description; **Delete this site** removes the empty site it left behind. - **This build stopped before it finished.** means the tab running the build was closed or reloaded before it ended, so nothing finished it. Use **Try again**. - **The public link could not be made.** means the site exists and is published but has no public link yet. Make one from the item's actions; see [Share a file or folder by link](/help/drive/link-access). - **One of those files could not be read. Remove it and try again.** names an attachment Drive could not open. Remove it and attach a supported file. - To publish a site you already built yourself, see [Upload a site](/help/drive/upload-a-site).