After watching thousands of Mana sessions, the creations people actually keep using share five traits. None of them are about clever prompts.
1. Start with a specific person and a specific moment
"Make me a habit tracker" produces something generic. "Make me something I can tap once at 10pm to log whether I did my 20-minute walk, with a streak counter on the Lock Screen" produces something you'll open every night.
2. Name the constraints
Tell Mana what not to do. "No login. No cloud sync. Don't ask me to set goals." Mana will respect those constraints and the result feels much more like what you actually want.
3. Describe the home-screen surface
The widget, Dynamic Island, or shortcut is often the highest-value part of a personal creation. Describe what should appear there: "the streak count + today's status as either a green check or a grey dash."
4. Iterate in plain language
You don't need to write specs. After Mana ships something, say "the streak should reset on missed days, not pause" or "the colours feel too cold, make it warmer." Mana edits in place and re-ships.
5. Treat the first version as a sketch
Most useful creations go through 3–5 rounds. Each round takes 30–60 seconds. The sketch-then-refine loop is where Mana shines, not the one-shot prompt.
Try it tonight: open Mana, describe one tiny annoyance from your day, and see what you get.