We're back to the battle of the AIs.
Last month, I spent some time experimenting with SquareKicker Compose, an extension that lets you create custom functionality inside Squarespace by describing what you want.
I even did a couple of head-to-head tests with Claude.
Now Squarespace has entered the ring with AI Sections, powered by its own AI assistant, Clarkson.
Naturally, I had to give it a try.
First Meet Clarkson and AI Sections
In a recent Release Notes Live demonstration, Squarespace product director Jeff Aldrich used Clarkson to create a sortable product table from a natural language prompt.
The table pulled actual products from the site's catalog, linked to their product pages, and matched the website's existing fonts and colors.
He could also modify the table through follow-up prompts and edit the generated code manually.
AI Sections supports React components, third-party libraries, and live previews inside the Squarespace editor.
Squarespace also covered the feature in its Circle Day 2026 product keynote recap.
I was able to enable early access through Squarespace Labs as a Circle member.
My first test: Customizing member navigation
I have a Squarespace Member Area, and one thing that's always bothered me is its navigation.
When you choose Replace main navigation, the member navigation appears in the site's header, but the member pages remain inside a dropdown menu.
I wanted those links to display horizontally, like regular navigation links.
There's no native setting for that.
I started by asking Clarkson through its chat interface, rather than creating a component inside AI Sections. That's an important distinction because Squarespace presents AI Sections primarily as a tool for generating custom code-driven components.
Here's how the conversation went.
Me:
I dont want my nav menu here to be dropdown I want it to be the across the nav
Clarkson:
Move the pages out of the dropdown and into the main navigation so they appear as separate links across the menu.
That would work for a regular Squarespace navigation folder, but not for Member Sites.
I explained that this was a members section.
Clarkson continued directing me to the navigation editor until I clarified that I'd already selected Replace main navigation.
Eventually, it acknowledged the limitation:
Clarkson:
The default member-area navigation cannot be changed into separate horizontal links with the documented settings.
It suggested alternative navigation on the member homepage but couldn't make the change to the existing header navigation.
After several exchanges, I asked what it was actually capable of doing.
Clarkson listed the content, layout, styling, and administrative tasks it supported, then reiterated that it couldn't flatten the Member Area dropdown.
So I opened SquareKicker Compose
I wanted to see if Compose could solve the same problem.
I started with a similar prompt.
Me:
I dont want this to be a dropdown nav i want it to ne a regular nav
Interestingly, Compose initially made the same assumption as Clarkson.
It thought I was dealing with a regular navigation folder and suggested moving the pages directly into the main navigation.
But it also offered to make the change with code.
I clarified:
Me:
this is a member area so this is the default, u get what im sayin
Compose:
Ah, member area folder, got it. Squarespace builds that one itself, so you can't drag the pages out. I'll flatten it with code: hide the folder button and lay the links out inline like the rest of your nav.
Compose then generated and applied the customization.
The member navigation links appeared horizontally instead of inside a dropdown.
It also provided visual controls for adjusting the spacing, size, colors, and hover effects.
No further prompting required.
What happened here?
Both assistants initially mistook the Member Area navigation for a regular navigation folder.
Once I clarified the problem, their responses diverged.
Clarkson identified Squarespace's documented limitation and explained what the native settings could and couldn't do.
Compose recognized the same limitation and wrote code to work around it.
For the customization I wanted, Compose got the job done.
This wasn't a comprehensive comparison, and I wasn't testing AI Sections through its dedicated code-generation interface. So the result doesn't establish whether AI Sections could handle the same request.
It does show what happened when I brought the same real-world problem to both assistants.
Where things stand
Squarespace's AI Sections demonstration shows some interesting possibilities for creating components that work with actual product data, site assets, and global styles.
Compose has demonstrated its ability to modify existing Squarespace elements, including functionality that isn't customizable through the native editor.
I'm interested in seeing how their capabilities develop and where the tools continue to overlap.
Just a few months ago, I was experimenting with AI-powered Squarespace customization through a third-party extension.
Now Squarespace is building similar functionality directly into its platform.
Things are moving fast.
I'll keep sharing what I find.
