I vibe coded my first app, y’all! It’s a simple timer app that helps you get started with something you’re avoiding. You type what you want to have done or be doing in ten minutes and then you start the timer. I’d been doing this in Apple Notes and setting a regular timer, but this is better (for me). It’s available (for free) on the App Store.
I thought I’d say a bit about my experience and wonder if we might establish a thread (this one or another) that inventories/archives our vibe coding efforts. My process was to design the screens in Illustrator and then mock-up them up in Whimsical.
Then I gave that to Claude Code (the app veresion not the terminal). It walked me through setting up the project in Xcode, setting up an Apple developer account, and (of course) making the whole thing work. It changed a bit in the process and I was able to hook into the Giphy API, which I didn’t realize existed and is more compliant with their terms. I’m so impressed/proud that after all these years of being such a fan of Mac apps, I’m able to create my own.
Could you explain a bit more on the use of Illustrator and Whimsical and why you needed both?
(Illustrator is not known for being a prototyping app, so I assume you are very familiar with it and started there for convenience?)
For apps like this, did you consider some of the “all-in-one” no-code app builders versus using several tools and Claude Code, or was the choice of Claude Code made first and then the rest of tool chain reverse-engineered from there?
Just curious as to the thought processes and given that there are so many different ways to approach trying to do a project like this.
(Personally, I’ve done a few small apps in the past so I know the App Store and Xcode back-end, but stopped tinkering with apps before the whole UI/UX prototyping and now vibe coding tools came along.)
Very cool, @beck! Thanks for sharing your experience. I just did something in 3 minutes that I was putting off for a few hours.
I’m curious about setting up Xcode and the dev account in terms of time and difficulty. Can you say more? Ive been doing small local projects with Claude Code and it’s wild.
@SpivR I used both because I know both tools well and I wanted a level of precision on the design that Whimsical doesn’t give, but I wanted a level of being able to annotate and point out things that felt overly complicated in Illustrator. I wouldn’t recommend that method for someone who doesn’t. I imagine Figma would have been best, but I actually don’t know that app at all.
My first vibe coding experiments were on Lovable and I found it really frustrating to use. This was a while back and I think the models might have been part of the problem but the whole experience really felt like a slot machine (buying tokens and then every once in a while getting a payout of a feature actually working). Once Claude Code came out, I never looked back. It feels lightyears better than the wrapper vibe-coding apps to me. This was my first experience using Claude Code in the GUI instead of the terminal. I like them both for different reasons.
@sridhar Absolutely! I only did the mock-ups because I have skill in that area. I could have just described in words/screenshots from other apps what I wanted and it would have intuited a design.
My first feature request! I’ll ask Claude.
DO IIIIIIIIIT.
Me, too! That was actually one of thet trickiest bits to get right. Claude really didn’t understand what I wanted despite repeated description and feedback. It finallly got it, though.
It was NOT hard, in fact I would go so far as to say it was a lot easier than the ~% brew/npm/install etc I’ve copied and pasted in terminal to make web apps work on localhost. Claude walked me through the whole process with Xcode from downloading it to finding specific menu items or checkboxes to click along the way. I tried to make a widget but it got a little gnarly so I backed out of that plan for now.
Claude also held my hand through the Apple Developer stuff, which wasn’t that bad but Apple could honestly have a nice web home for that part IMO. I asked Claude to review the codebase as the App Store would before submitting it and it passed so I guess that worked? I submitted it on Saturday night and received the approval Tuesday morning.
Basically, if you’ve been doing small local projects and you want them as apps on your phone or mac, I would say it’s entirely possible.
I used Claude a couple of weeks ago to make a simple simulator website that shows what bottlenecks are. The first 30 minutes was very productive, the next 4 hours were fixing and testing. It’s set me up with a simple teaching tool I can share with my clients and readers, and it cost me nothing.
@Beck this would be a great app to port to the Watch if you ever feel inclined to port it. I’d love to have In Ten as a complication on my Ultra – much more focused than just setting a timer.
Got Claude to update a macOS clipboard manager app for me.
The second clipboard item will be active by default so I can just hit return to paste it. Also, just press numbers to paste an item instead of Command-pasting.
I submitted it on Saturday night and received the approval Tuesday morning.