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.
Quick insights 🔎
AI makes it easier than ever to ship broken software fast.
📊 Cursor hit $100M ARR in under 2 years
Proof that vibe coding works but don’t forget, they had 60 people who understood systems.
💰 82% of developers use AI coding
Power users report “massive gains” but they already understood how code works before asking AI to write it.
🎵 The "70% Problem" is documented
The 'weekend warrior' founders are learning that Sunday's working demo becomes Monday's customer support nightmare.
This week's mental model 🧠
The 10% Rule
AI doesn’t replace technical skill. It just amplifies the ten percent that matters. If you know what that 10% is. You still need to understand how all the pieces fit together. You can’t prompt your way to production without that knowledge.
AI is a force multiplier, not a force field.
Better understanding leads to better prompts, which leads to faster shipping.
Vibe coding works, but it isn’t magic.
Why I stopped waiting on developers
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 did what many marketers do, I jumped to no-code. Built everything myself. Zapier, Make, Webflow all of it.
But this was not ideal either.
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.
The fairytale 🧚
“Just describe your idea and AI will build it. No skills needed. Anyone can launch a SaaS in a weekend.”
The reality ✅
Vibe coding works, but it’s not magic.
AI builds the scaffolding.
But if you don’t understand what you’re building, you’re just spinning up prettier failures.
Here’s the real story
82% of developers 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 here's the catch: those gains are "unevenly distributed." The biggest winners? Developers who already understood how systems work.
Meanwhile, 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 clear:
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.
The difference between shipping fast and spinning your wheels is understanding what you’re actually building.
Think like a systems architect for your AI built app
You don’t need to become a full-stack dev.
But you do need to understand how the pieces fit.
Frontend in your AI built SaaS app: what users see
Buttons, pages, screens. What they click, tap, scroll.Backend in your AI built app: the brain
Handles logic, processes requests, runs the show.Database in your AI built app: 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.
Learn just enough to be dangerous
Don’t learn syntax.
Learn how the machine works.
1. Think in components
Every feature is just smaller blocks stacked together. A signup flow = form + input fields + submit logic + error messages.
2. State management
Understand how data moves and where it lives. Click a button → update profile → change state → re-render UI.
3. API basics
How frontend and backend talk. GET (read), POST (create), PUT (update), DELETE (remove). That's 80% of it. Think of it like ordering at a restaurant, you ask to see the menu (GET), place an order (POST), change your order (PUT), or cancel it (DELETE).
4. Debugging (fixing your screw ups)
Stuff breaks. It always will. Learn to find the bug, fix it fast, and move on.
Pro tip: paste the error into ChatGPT and ask what’s wrong, then ask it to fix it.
5. Data relationships
Users have accounts. Accounts store settings. Products connect to orders.
Model the data properly or you’ll rebuild your app from scratch.
You don’t need to write it all from scratch. But you do need to know how to ask AI for the right thing and fix it when it screws up.
Fast start stack
Once you get these core concepts, here’s the stack I recommend.
Coding Platform (Where You Build)
Frontend
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]
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.
Here's what prompt-only builders don't have:
Products that actually stay up
The ability to fix what breaks
The judgment to know when to ask for help
Stop pretending AI will ship production-ready software while you sleep. It won’t. But it will make you 10x faster, if you know how to steer it.
Until next week, keep building. Just make sure the foundation’s solid this time.
Martin, Chief Ranter at Uncharted
🎧 Track for this one
Bonobo - Cirrus