You Can't Prompt Your Way to Production

If you don’t understand how your AI generated code actually works, you’re just building polished apps that will crash when real users show up.

I started out as a web dev, but that feels like another life.

Then I became the marketer waiting three weeks for a button change. “Urgent” meant nothing. Every A/B test? Blocked. Every landing page tweak? Delayed.

So I jumped to no-code. Built everything myself. Zapier, Make, Webflow, all of it.

Then Replit dropped AI agents. Cursor followed. Suddenly my dusty 10% of coding knowledge actually mattered again.

But I also hit wall after wall of bugs and crashes. After burning weeks debugging AI-generated spaghetti code, that’s when it hit me.

You can't prompt your way to production.

Vibe coding works. But it’s not magic.

Everyone’s selling the same story “Just describe your idea and AI will build it. No skills needed. Anyone can launch a SaaS in a weekend.”

What they don’t mention is that 82% of developers now use AI for writing code, but 45% say AI is “bad or very bad” at handling complex tasks. GitHub reports 88% productivity gains for developers using AI tools, but those gains are “unevenly distributed.” The biggest winners? Developers who already understood how systems work before they asked AI to write anything.

Cursor hit $100M ARR in under two years. Proof that vibe coding works. But they had 60 people who understood systems. Replit can build a 2D game from a single prompt, but it takes someone who knows debugging to make it production-ready.

The pattern is consistent across every case study I’ve seen. AI amplifies what you already know.

If you understand system architecture, AI becomes a superpower. If you don’t, you’ll spend weeks rebuilding what you thought was done.

Most people building with AI can’t fix their own products when they break. Your customers don’t care that “AI got it wrong.” They see a broken app and a builder who can’t fix it.

Think like a systems architect for your AI built app

You don’t need to become a full-stack developer. But you do need to understand how the pieces fit.

1. Frontend: what users see
   Buttons, pages, screens. What they click, tap, scroll.

2. Backend: the brain
   Handles logic, processes requests, runs the show.

3. Database: the memory
   Where all your user data, settings, and content live.

Vibe coding tools can now write all three. But if you don’t know how they connect? You’ll burn weeks fixing things that never worked properly in the first place.

Don’t learn syntax. Learn how the machine works.

Think in components.
Every feature is just smaller blocks stacked together. A signup flow is a form plus input fields plus submit logic plus error messages.

State management.
How data moves and where it lives. Click a button, update profile, change state, re-render UI.

API basics.
GET reads data. POST creates it. PUT updates it. DELETE removes it.

Debugging.
Stuff breaks. Paste the error into ChatGPT and ask what’s wrong.

Data relationships.
Users have accounts. Accounts store settings. Products connect to orders.

Fast start stack

Once you get these core concepts, here’s the stack I recommend.

Coding Platform (Where You Build)

• Start with: Replit or Lovable (no setup, in-browser)

• Level up with: Cursor (AI + real dev power)

• Others: Lovable, v0.dev

Frontend

• Use = Next.js (React-based, easy to scale)

• Styling = Tailwind + Shadcn (Professional UI, no custom CSS hell)

Authentication

• Use: Clerk (Free to start, $25/month for 10K users)

• Covers everything from logins to social sign-in without the setup headache.

Backend & Database

• Go-to pick: Supabase

• Everything you need without juggling five different services

• Pricing: Free for 500MB, $25/month for production

Email

• Use: Resend (Free for 3k & $20/month for 100K emails)

• Confirmations, Notifications, Invites)

• Simple email setup that just works.

Hosting = where your app lives

• Use: Vercel

• Works great with Next.js & One-click deploy

• Pricing: Free for hobby projects, $20/month for production

Version Control (Save + Track Code)

• Use: Git + GitHub (free)

• Save versions, rollback mistakes, collaborate

Vibe coding = fast iteration + smart systems thinking.

Understand the parts. Use the right tools and you’ll ship something useful.

Your crash course in one tight stack

You don’t need a CS degree, just the right 10%.

Here’s your crash course, in one tight stack:

1. How the pieces fit [Youtube]

• Full-Stack Development Course – Detailed overview of how frontend, backend, and database connect

2. Core concepts explained [Youtube]

• React in 100 Seconds

• Next.js in 100 Seconds

• Supabase in 100 seconds

• Tailwind in 100 seconds

• GIT in 100s

• What is Github

3. Ship and iterate

• Vercel Explained – One-click hosting for your Next.js app

• Git & GitHub for Beginners – Save progress, fix mistakes, and collaborate

North star for AI built app builders

Learning these fundamentals takes weeks, not minutes.

You'll hit walls. You'll feel like giving up when a "simple" feature breaks everything.

You'll wonder if it's worth it.

The question isn’t whether you can build something with AI. It’s whether you can keep it running when your first hundred customers show up.

Martin

P.S. If you’ve shipped something with AI and hit the wall I’m describing, reply and tell me where it broke. I’m curious what patterns are showing up.

Track for this one

Bonobo - Cirrus