The C&C app factory: My experience building an app with AI
Many years ago, I was what I called a “Deviner” — a designer who wrote her own front-end code. It had been a while, though, and tweaking some HTML and CSS doesn't make you an app developer. But I kept hearing about people building prototypes, websites, even full apps using AI, and I thought: how hard could it be?
Turns out: not very. Thanks to a helpful YouTube course, a handful of AI tools, and some patience for experimentation.
Before jumping in, I did a little research and found this free video course on How to Build Mobile Apps with Claude Code. The instructor did a great job walking through the steps: AI tool setup, options for app development frameworks, how to design a successful app, implementing features with AI, pushing code to GitHub, setting up a test environment on your phone, database integration, user authentication, testing and debugging, and more.
I followed along with the video, pausing when needed to try each step on my own. Since I already had an app idea, I diverged a little from the lesson to build what I needed for my app. While the sections about how to come up with an idea for an app and whittle it down to an MVP weren’t new to me, the instruction on setting up the backend functionality, such as database integration and authentication, was extremely useful and informative.
I also found Claude to be a helpful teacher, asking it questions about how to move forward when I got stuck. Over time, I found myself relying less on the video instructor and more on Claude for assistance. I guess in the beginning I didn't know what Claude could help me with, and the more I asked and got good answers, the more I trusted it as a reliable teacher and source of information. I also found that, with some prodding, Claude could do more than it initially claimed — saving me time by letting me avoid going back and forth between Claude and the terminal or another tool Claude already had access to.
The video course instructed me to use Antigravity to manage my files and connect it to Claude Code to do the coding. This felt like an unnecessary layer, but given my lack of knowledge in this area, I followed along. This is a good example of where it would be helpful to consult with an actual engineer to understand why this extra tool is needed (or not). Once I got Claude Code set up in Antigravity, I asked how I could bring in the designs I'd created in Claude Design. It walked me through the options, and I was able to export the design and import it into Claude Code. It did seem odd to me, though, that I had to export something from one part of Claude to another. Since it's all under the Claude umbrella, I wasn't sure why I couldn't just refer to it and have Claude Code pick up where I left off in Claude Design.
That being said, the import was fairly easy, and nothing was lost in the process. From there, I followed along with the video course to set up a database in Supabase to store unique user data and handle authentication. This is where I ran into a lot of issues and couldn't get the magic-link login to work. Thankfully, this is where Claude really shined, helping check for bugs across multiple systems and suggesting ways to fix potential issues. I appreciated how it paused to explain what could be wrong and asked for my permission to try different fixes. When I fed it more information, it thanked me and suggested different approaches based on the new info. At times, it even proactively found and fixed bugs before I discovered them. Ultimately, we couldn't get the magic link to work, so we settled on using an emailed code for authentication instead.
I continued going back and forth, prompting updates to the app until I got it to a place where most of the desired functionality was in place. The process felt reminiscent of the best collaboration sessions I've had with engineers in the past — sitting side by side, me suggesting tweaks and improvements, the engineer making live updates to the screen based on my feedback, rapidly iterating until the UI was just right — no tedious spec documents needed. What was even better was that it felt like this engineering partner already had a good background in design and UX best practices, so I didn't have to overexplain myself; they just got it. The process was collaborative and fluid — we were basically running our own well-oiled app-building team… the C&C (Claude and Christine) App Factory! (My elder millennials will get that reference.)
Once the front-end and back-end functionality was in good shape, I moved on to the next stage—design refinement. This is where I’d really put the AI tools to the test.
More on that soon!