How I made a paid Mac app in 11 days with Caude – without writing a single line of code

ZDNET’s cardinal takeaways

• I shipped a Mac app without penning a azygous enactment of code.
• Vibe coding took 502 directives, not 1 magic prompt.
• App Store promo images took astir arsenic agelong arsenic the app.

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At astir noon connected Sunday, Sept. 20, I came up with an thought for a Mac app. One week later, connected Sunday, Sept. 27, besides astir noon, I submitted my completed app to Apple. Four days later, Apple accepted the tool, and it went unrecorded connected the App Store.

Also: AI wholly changed however I make iPhone apps … and I deliberation I emotion it

This is the communicative of an unrelated duty by a ZDNET editor, a blessed accident, and vibe coding astatine its best. It began 30 years ago, with a elephantine room of icons.

Icons were bully to me

When I started my archetypal bundle company, 1 of the archetypal products I introduced was Icon Factory for HyperCard. It won respective awards. This merchandise supported my institution and our employees for years. Those icons were each achromatic and white, arsenic was HyperCard.

Also: After the vibe-coding unreserved comes the debugging hangover

In 1997, aft years of lawsuit requests for colorful Finder desktop icons, we created a three-volume acceptable of 32×32 pixel colour icons called Icon Gallery. This was a boxed merchandise of much than 2,000 icons. Icon Gallery sold done retail, message bid distribution, and nonstop mail.

Icon Gallery archetypal box, compared with the app I conscionable built and published.David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Icon Gallery was 1 of the past boxed bundle products I produced. I’ll beryllium honorable with you. I can’t callback erstwhile oregon wherefore I stopped selling Icon Gallery, but it astir apt tracked with erstwhile I stopped physically manufacturing boxed products. That decision, of course, tracked with the emergence of the web.

Now, let’s accelerated guardant to a fewer months ago. While decluttering immoderate cubbies successful my office, I recovered the packaging for a mates of my aged bundle products, including Icon Gallery. I stuck the container connected a shelf. Once again, I beauteous overmuch forgot astir it.

Then, past month, successful grant of this year’s large iPhone event, my exertion asked maine to constitute a bid of humanities Apple stories. While penning ‘AI wholly changed however I make iPhone apps … and I deliberation I emotion it,’ I dug done my server for a screenshot oregon container illustration of an AI merchandise I produced for the Mac successful the precocious 1980s.

Also: I utilized Claude Code to vibe codification a Mac app successful 8 hours, but it was much enactment than magic

I recovered that image, and I besides recovered an aged Macromedia Director record containing each 2,338 icons from 30 years ago. In the mid-90s, I had converted Icon Gallery’s icons to Director format and sold the resulting merchandise to animators arsenic an plus library. Director was large successful the CD-ROM days, and has since faded into Mac past on with HyperCard and different vintage apps.

But determination it was, sitting connected my Mac Studio’s desktop: a 30-year-old record containing each those assets, successful a long-dead record format. I felt similar an archeologist cracking unfastened an past mummy’s tomb.

Claude is my friend

So, I gave that past record to Claude. My punctual was simple: “This record is an aged Macromedia Director record containing a ample room of icons. Can you abstracted the icons into their ain folder?”

Claude didn’t enactment up a fuss. The AI didn’t kick that the Director files were truthful wildly retired of day that it couldn’t bash anything. All it asked was what format I wanted the files in, and whether I wanted the achromatic borderline pixels to beryllium transparent.

Also: I built an iOS app successful conscionable 2 days with conscionable my dependable – and it was electrifying

According to the log, this process took 4 minutes and 30 steps. In little clip than it takes to brew a cupful of coffee, I had 2,000-plus PNG images, organized into taxable folders. I didn’t truly person immoderate plans for the icons. I was mostly amazed astatine however easy Claude extracted spot information and converted it into PNG files.

That was connected Sept. 2. I past fto the extracted postulation of vintage files beryllium successful a folder connected my Desktop.

There could beryllium an app for that

Eighteen days later, connected a Sunday afternoon, I needed a graphic for thing I was moving on. I thought astir my aged icons from Icon Gallery and thought, “Hey, it would beryllium chill if I had an app to browse and resize these icons.”

And, successful that moment, Icon Gallery ‘97 was born. Why not, right? I person AIs.

I worked successful some Claude Desktop (to speech strategy) and Claude Code (to physique the Mac app). Within a fewer hours, I had a moving Mac app that could browse the archetypal room and make perfectly scaled, hard-edge bitmap icons from 32×32 pixels up to 1,024×1,024 pixels.

Pixels standard to afloat size (App Store graphic).David Gewirtz/ZDNET

I officially had a impervious of concept.

But however would I productize it? Claude recommended 2 viable courses of action. The AI recommended naming the merchandise Icon Gallery ‘97: 30th Anniversary Edition, celebrating the hand-created retro icons. This vintage consciousness could beryllium appealing successful a satellite of AI-generated art.

Also: I utilized Claude Code to vibe codification an Apple Watch app successful conscionable 12 hours

Claude besides recommended adding a recoloring feature, truthful designers could not lone take the aged icons, but recolor them to lucifer marque oregon individuality colors. The AI besides recommended creating collections and favorites.

How the recoloring diagnostic works (App Store graphic).David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Then a person recommended I physique successful an ‘Export to Slack’ feature, due to the fact that the retro icons would beryllium precise chill arsenic Slack emojis. My woman saw the aforesaid imaginable for dragging the icons into texts. I made definite those features were successful the app.

How the Slack emojis enactment (App Store graphic).David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Once you person favorites and collections, what happens if you privation to usage the app connected different Mac? Ah, truthful present iCloud syncing needed to beryllium added. And truthful it was.

Lest anyone connote that vibe coding involves issuing 1 “Make maine an app,” command, fto maine dissuade you of that notion. I gave Claude Code 502 idiosyncratic directives successful the 4 days that I actively interacted with it.

Also: 75% of developers I surveyed similar Claude Code implicit Codex – here’s why

These were not full-time coding days. I visited the doc for my yearly physical, spent Friday with a contractor moving connected the house, and had to crook successful 3 large diagnostic nonfiction thought pieces for ZDNET.

But astir that work, I talked to Claude and guided its improvement process. Then I went backmost to my different priorities.

Using AI to codification a Mac app

Back erstwhile we archetypal started utilizing AI coding agents, I developed an interior headcanon that helps maine deliberation astir however to negociate the bots. I presumption them arsenic moving partners astatine the extremity of a chat transcript. I usage this attack to enactment with galore of my quality partners, truthful it works well.

As such, sometimes I occurrence disconnected a question to Claude Code. In 1 case, soon aft we built successful the in-app purchasing mechanics and proved it worked, I realized that idiosyncratic could bargain the app, bash a afloat icon export, and past petition a refund. I asked Claude, “Do we care?”

In-app acquisition interface (App Store graphic).David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Claude suggested not warring refunds. That determination matched with my semipermanent bundle publishing style. If idiosyncratic doesn’t privation my code, don’t marque them wage for it. But that question fired disconnected a much absorbing discovery. Claude realized that each 2,146 icons sat wrong the app arsenic escaped PNG files. Anyone who downloaded the escaped mentation could right-click it, take Show Package Contents, and transcript the full postulation without buying anything.

We added encryption and packaged the app with a azygous scrambled file. As images are requested, they’re unscrambled dynamically.

Before we submitted the instrumentality to the App Store, we tested it. We deliberately corrupted copies to beryllium the cheque would drawback them. Then we ran the app’s ain decryption motor implicit each icon. The decrypted output matched the archetypal files, truthful we shipped it that way.

Also: Who’s liable for catching rogue AI agents? You are

At different point, I realized the model scrolled incredibly slowly. I had to transportation Claude to tally immoderate tests. As it turned out, the codification compressed full-sized images for each preview, and different artifact of codification rebuilt the full model 482 times during each resize request.

Persuading Claude became a communal taxable (very overmuch similar moving with a quality partner). I wanted a enactment rectangle that could beryllium dragged crossed icons. Claude thought this attack was unnecessary. Then I explained that Macs person been capable to drag-select since earlier 1997. Eventually, Claude got that 1 working.

I’ve said this before, but this is however I spent a batch of my vocation managing programmers. I’d enactment with them concisely passim the day, among each the different activities I managed for the company.

Vibe coding with Claude didn’t look overmuch different. The AI adjacent pushed backmost connected immoderate instructions, copped a ‘tude present and there, and complained astir immoderate of the assignments. It could wholly person been different quality astatine the different extremity of the chat. In immoderate ways, Claude seemed much quality than immoderate radical I’ve worked with.

Also: ‘I can’t stop’: 80% of developers find AI coding much addictive than helpful

Claude besides got precise fussy astir the collection’s provenance. I recovered it absorbing however cautious the AI was astir making definite the app would get done App Store review. Its interest was who owned the icons. I had to person it that my institution created the icons successful the 1990s and that my existent concern was the ineligible descendant of the archetypal enterprise. All the assets were mine.

Even so, Claude pointed retired immoderate icons Apple was apt to block, including a Caterpillar logo and a person’s caput that looked for each the satellite similar Charlie Brown. We besides had a clump of gunshot icons, a fashionable taxable successful 1997 but wholly code deaf successful 2026. I removed those icons arsenic well.

One truly chill vantage of utilizing AI coding is however rapidly you tin trial retired ideas. Git tin subdivision code. This capableness isn’t AI-related astatine all, but it means you tin revert to a erstwhile codebase oregon integrate changes. I mixed utilizing Git branches with AI experiments. At 1 constituent I asked Claude to effort a wholly antithetic ocular design. Claude built it wrong an hour, and wrong 30 seconds I decided it was horrid. We were capable to revert instantly.

App Store learnings

I americium not a implicit App Store neophyte, but I mightiness arsenic good be. The past apps I built for the App Store were successful 2008. The past outgo I got from Apple for those apps was successful 2012. The world, and the App Store, person some changed a batch since then.

In preparing my submission to the App Store, I utilized Claude to locomotion maine done each surface and submission option. I took screenshots of each caller surface and sent them to Claude earlier hitting the corroborate oregon adjacent button. This attack worked rather well.

I besides utilized Claude for proposal connected mounting up the App Store account. The biggest proposal I got was that caller App Store businesses (those nether $1 cardinal successful sales) tin use arsenic a tiny concern and commissions volition driblet from 30% to 15%. That’s a large win.

Also: How to instal and configure Claude Code, measurement by step

Before submitting the app to the App Store, I instructed Claude to motorboat a bid of adversarial agents to analyse the app extremity to end. Although I’d done a batch of testing, the agents did find a fewer things that needed to beryllium fixed earlier submission.

Probably my biggest astonishment was the graphics that travel an App Store submission. Apple allows up to 10 2880×1800 graphics that are displayed with the app successful your listing. Creating these graphics took maine 3 days astir my different work. In different words, creating the graphics took astir arsenic agelong arsenic creating the app.

That’s due to the fact that Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT were terrible, horrible, unfortunate, ineffective, and wide wholly incompetent astatine creating App Store promo images. While I’ve had tons of large occurrence with AI representation generation, there’s thing astir getting the connection close successful an App Store promo representation that made the AIs fail. So, I did the enactment by manus successful Photoshop, similar a caveman. You tin spot immoderate of those graphics above, sprinkled passim this article.

Oh, and here’s a tip. Once you acceptable up TestFlight, which is the instrumentality for sharing your app crossed users and machines, bounds your uploads. On Wednesday, I uploaded 21 builds betwixt 6:49 americium and 9:20 pm, portion fine-tuning the last look and consciousness of the submission. Apple refused to judge the twenty-second submission and made maine hold a afloat time to effort again.

That intermission pushed the full task backmost a day.

Here are a fewer much thoughts:

• Tell the AI to grounds each determination successful an .MD file
• Make the AI measurement alternatively of guess. Metrics work; AI guesses spell down beauteous overmuch useless rabbit holes.
• Use tooling and deterministic investigation alternatively than conscionable AI. In different words, archer the AI to constitute Python scripts for results, alternatively than springiness its impressions.
• Launch subagents aft each league to reappraisal that session’s work.
• Keep an oculus connected the discourse usage successful each session. Once it reaches astir 75%, prevention advancement and restart. The AI starts getting stupider and stupider supra 75% context.
• Use extracurricular testers. Neither you nor the AI volition drawback everything.

Signing up arsenic an Apple Developer costs $99/year. Without that, you can’t upload your bundle to the App Store oregon usage TestFlight.

Look, I don’t cognize however good the app volition bash financially, and frankly I don’t attraction each that much. I’m surely not expecting it to money my retirement. But it was a ton of amusive and fto maine productize thing I wanted to usage for myself. It was besides gratifying to springiness caller beingness to each that originative retro creation from the past. The process gave maine a harmless and controlled mode to larn however to codification in-app purchases for my different app projects, and it was a large trial lawsuit for whether you tin get AI to assistance make an app (in the abstraction of a week) that tin beryllium submitted and approved by the App Store and Apple (in conscionable different 4 days).

Oh, and I did not constitute 1 enactment of existent code. Not. One. Line.

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