Capstone: Build and Deploy a Complete App

You’ve learned the tools, the prompting techniques, the debugging strategies, and the production patterns. Now build something real and ship it.

This capstone walks through the complete workflow — from blank screen to deployed application — using every technique from the course.

🔄 Quick Recall: Across this course you’ve learned: tool selection (Lesson 2), prompting techniques (Lesson 3), the build order (Lesson 4), debugging (Lesson 5), production hardening (Lesson 6), and advanced patterns like rules files and testing (Lesson 7). This capstone integrates all of them.

Choose Your Capstone Project

Pick one of these projects (or design your own with similar scope):

Option A: Personal Finance Tracker

Track income and expenses, categorize spending, show charts of spending patterns, monthly budget limits with alerts.

Option B: Recipe Collection App

Save recipes with ingredients and instructions, tag by cuisine and meal type, search and filter, generate shopping lists from selected recipes.

Option C: Habit Tracker

Daily habits with streak counting, calendar view of completions, statistics and graphs, reminder notifications.

✅ Quick Check: Before building, answer three concept questions for your chosen project: Who is this for? What’s the one core function? What’s the minimum viable version? (Answer: For a habit tracker: it’s for people building personal routines. The core function is tracking daily completion of habits. The MVP is a list of habits with checkboxes and a streak counter — no charts, no reminders, no sharing. Start minimal.)

The Full Build Walkthrough

Phase 1: Setup (5 minutes)

1. Create your rules file:

Project: [Your App Name]
Stack: Next.js 14, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Supabase
Components in /components, pages in /app
Use React Server Components by default
Always add loading and error states
Always use TypeScript, never JavaScript

2. Set up version control: Initialize git and make your first commit (empty project with rules file).

Phase 2: Layout (10 minutes)

Write a detailed prompt for the full layout — all pages, navigation, and responsive behavior. Test on mobile and desktop. Commit.

Phase 3: Core Feature (15 minutes)

Build the single most important feature with localStorage first. Test thoroughly. Commit.

Phase 4: Support Features (20 minutes)

Add 2-3 secondary features, one prompt per feature. Test and commit after each.

Phase 5: Production Hardening (15 minutes)

• Migrate to Supabase (database + auth)
• Add error handling for every failure mode
• Add form validation
• Test responsive design

Phase 6: Polish and Deploy (10 minutes)

• Visual polish (colors, animations, empty states)
• Deploy to Vercel, Netlify, or your tool’s hosting
• Test the live URL on your phone

Deployment Checklist

Before sharing your deployed app:

FUNCTIONALITY:
□ Core feature works end-to-end
□ All support features tested
□ Forms validate input before submission
□ Error messages are helpful (not stack traces)
□ Loading states show during data fetches
□ Empty states guide users (not blank pages)

RESPONSIVE:
□ Tested on mobile phone
□ Tested on tablet
□ Tested on desktop
□ Touch targets are tappable (44px+)

SECURITY:
□ No API keys in client-side code
□ Authentication protects private routes
□ Row Level Security enabled on database
□ Inputs sanitized before database writes

DEPLOYMENT:
□ App loads without errors on deployed URL
□ HTTPS enabled (automatic on most hosts)
□ Environment variables configured on host
□ Tested by someone who isn't you

Course Recap

What’s Next

Build more. The fastest way to get better at vibe coding is to build more apps. Each project teaches you new patterns.

Learn some code basics. Understanding HTML, CSS, and JavaScript fundamentals makes your prompts more precise and your debugging faster. You don’t need to become a programmer — just enough to speak the language.

Stay current. Vibe coding tools evolve rapidly. Follow the communities: Cursor’s Discord, Claude Code’s GitHub, Lovable’s community forums.

Share what you build. Deploy your apps, share them with friends, and collect feedback. Real users reveal problems you never imagined.

Key Takeaways

• The full workflow: concept → rules file → layout → core → support → hardening → polish → deploy
• Commit after every working feature — these checkpoints are your safety net
• Production hardening (auth, database, error handling) is what separates toys from tools
• Test your deployed app on your phone and share it with someone else
• Vibe coding is a skill that improves with practice — build more, learn more
• You don’t need to understand every line of code to ship real, useful software