SURRENDERING TO
VIBE CODING
Launching a 100% AI-generated app to the Apple App Store
CODING SURRENDER 02
I wanted to test the limits of what was possible using today’s
AI coding tools. Could I launch an app without writing a
single line of code?
Answer: YES!
Here’s how I did it–with AI handling every element from
design to development.
WHAT I BUILT: SURRENDER - NPC APP 03
An AI-powered app that helps indecisive people make decisions by polling their
friends or by surrendering to the roll of the dice. In essence, Surrender lets you
become the ultimate NPC (non-player character) in your own life.
I built Surrender in ~60 hours using:
Code: Cursor + Claude for generating and debugging React Native w/ Expo.dev
Design: DALL·E for app icon
Landing Page: Bolt.new for landing page generation, hosted by Fly.io
Privacy Policy & Copy: ChatGPT for legal + marketing text
THE EXPERIENCE 04
What AI Nailed ✅
5x faster development (compared to my past apps)
Less syntax troubleshooting, more time thinking about high-level features / flow
Great for generating boilerplate & repetitive tasks
Where AI Struggled ❌
End-to-end testing is very hard and time intensive, especially on-device testing loops
requiring device builds.
Circuitous logic or duplicate code making debugging challenging and code fragile.
Clicking around in developer portals actually becomes the slowest step -> increased
importance of programmable interfaces for all things!
Out of date documentation. Once a mild irritation but now this leads to a really
negative experience for developers who have no patience if the library doesn't work
out of the box.
High variance in code quality when relevant files are dropped from the context.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DEVELOPERS 🚀 05
Developers are able to abstract to a higher level Instead of worrying about syntax.
Cursor + Claude act as powerful routers - if you don't specify, they route you to a
tool (based on StackOverflow coverage and best documentation?) reinforcing power
law distribution of current dev frameworks.
Paradoxically, there are now no switching costs in devtools and frameworks.
Developers become way less patient because AI can rewrite an entire app in a new
language or framework if what they try doesn't work immediately out of the box.
BOTTOM LINE 06
Tiny teams building faster than ever with AI.
Everyone gets upleveled: non-technical PMs and designers to full product
engineers.
Small dev teams can ship faster than ever, but more AI slop requires more
time debugging and tighter testing loops.
Taste matters more than anything else now as the cost of developing
software approaches the cost of compute.
Ultra niche products and experiences become “worth” developing.
THE FUTURE? 07
Maybe software engineer ends up being the shortest-lived career in history because it was
created, and then it obviated itself. Maybe everyone just builds custom apps on the fly for
everything. Maybe the market is flooded with so many apps, the biggest problem is
discovering the one that fits our needs.
Either way, “vibe coding” will drastically lower barriers to entry.
We’re on the cusp of something incredible, but vibe coding is not quite there from a developer
experience standpoint.
We desperately need better debugging, testing, and documentation tools.
If you’re building in this space (or just want to vibe code with me in SF!),
please reach out!
GET SURRENDER
Stop overthinking. Start surrendering.
Find the Surrender NPC App for iOS in the App Store
https://surrender.fly.dev/
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/surrender-npc/id6737744936
