From raw idea to an app in the App Store

The exact path indie devs use to ship an app with AI doing most of the typing.

5 min to readAn app for iPhone and Android11 chaptersFree, no sign-up

What you will learn

A dev environment with an AI wired to your repo.
A validated idea, a PRD, a stack you can defend.
Context files and AGENTS.md that keep the AI on track.
A real build loop: one task, one diff, tested and shipped.
Onboarding, a paywall and a store listing that turn installs into users.
A launch plan, then an iteration loop.

How it works

You don't need to code. Setup starts from zero, one tool at a time, and the AI does the typing.
It's free, with no account. Tick tasks as you go: progress saves in this browser.
Six parts: start, set up, plan, build, ship, grow. Already have a stack? Jump to Tools and rules.
Every task is part of building your real app, not practice you redo later. We use VS Code and Claude Code throughout.

What we use

We picked one tool for each job, so every step can be exact. Prefer other tools? Use them, the ideas carry over. But ten options at once only confuse a beginner.

VS Code: Where you work: files, terminal and agent in one window.
Claude Code: Your AI agent. Writes and edits the code.
Expo + React Native: One codebase for iPhone and Android.
GitHub: Save points online, so nothing is ever lost.
EAS: Builds the app and sends it to the stores.
RevenueCat: Subscriptions, if your app charges.
PostHog: See what people actually do in your app.

Is this for you?

For you if

You can describe what you want, but a terminal loses you.
Shipped with AI before? It turns to spaghetti past the prototype.
You want one path, not forty open browser tabs.

Not for you if

You want to learn to write code line by line.
You're building a website, not a phone app.
You want a drag-and-drop builder with no terminal at all.

What vibe coding is

The original post on X ↗

Vibe coding: Building software by telling an AI what you want in plain words, instead of writing the code yourself.
Where the name comes from: Andrej Karpathy, an AI researcher and OpenAI co-founder, named it in the post at the top of this page: you give in to the vibes and forget the code even exists.
Why vibes: You steer by feel, not by reading code: see it, say what to change, run it, paste the error back in.
What we do differently: Karpathy called it fine for throwaway weekend projects. An app people pay for needs a plan, save points in Git and a look at what the agent changed. That's what this workflow adds.