Build Guide
You don't need a team, a server, or a budget. The only thing you pay for is the AI subscription you probably already have — hosting, your database, and version control are all free.
The Pipeline
Tap a stage to open it. Mark each one complete as you go.
Everything else in this guide is free. The subscription (around $20/month for the standard paid tiers) is the only real cost — and you may already be paying it.
From here on, “the agent” means whichever one you chose. Both Claude and ChatGPT have a coding agent that can read and write files on your own computer.
You want the tool that can open a folder and write files for you, not only answer questions in a browser tab.
On OpenAI: install the Codex app (macOS or Windows). On Anthropic: use Claude Code (it runs from the Claude desktop app) or Claude Cowork.
When it starts, it asks which folder to work in — that's the next stage.
Create a new, empty folder and name it after your idea.
Open the agent and point it at that folder. From now on, everything it builds lives inside it.
Talk through the idea: what it does, who it's for, the main screens, and the data you'll store.
Ask the agent to save the plan as implementation-plan.md and keep updating it as the idea sharpens.
Say “start building.” Ask it to do the interface first, so you have something you can see and click within minutes.
Open the result in your browser and react to it like a real user would.
Tell the agent what's off — layout, wording, a flow that doesn't feel right — and let it adjust.
One prompt is rarely the finished product. This back-and-forth is the work, and it's completely normal.
Sign up (free) for GitHub (stores your code), Vercel (puts it online), and Supabase (database plus login / auth).
Tell the agent: “connect GitHub, Vercel, and Supabase to this project,” and ask it to walk you through each step.
MCP is the plumbing that lets the agent act on those accounts for you. You approve each step; it does the work.
Connect your GitHub repo to Vercel once. After that, every push to the main branch deploys automatically.
Then tell the agent to: push to main → run the Supabase migration (this creates your database tables). That's it — your project is on the internet.
Your API keys and .env file stay out of GitHub. Ask the agent to set up a .gitignore so secrets never get pushed. Leaking keys to a public repo is the single most common first-project mistake — and the easiest to avoid.
The Honest Part
Free tiers are real, not a trick. Here's where each one stops.
Your code
Free
Public and private repos, no catch for a first project. You'll likely never outgrow it.
Hosting
Free → ~$20/mo
Free for personal projects only. Add payments or ads and you move to the Pro plan.
Database
Free → ~$25/mo
Real products allowed. Pauses after 7 days idle; 500 MB and 2 projects on free.
One More Thing
This is the real stack — AI-driven. All-in-one builders like Lovable or Bolt get you to a live link faster, but more locked-in. This path is a little more setup and teaches you the GitHub + Vercel + Supabase stack you'll keep using. Pick the lane that fits where you're headed.
1-on-1 mentorship
The nine stages above are the map. What a page can't do is sit beside you at stage eight, when the deploy fails and the error message means nothing to you yet. That's what the sessions are: live, one to one, on your own machine and your own files. You type. I stop you a second before the mistake and tell you why.