Over the holidays I built a plan for an app that would be worthwhile to my children, oldest son first. That plan developed to several thousand words of planning documents (MVP, technical stack, layout). That was just me lying in the sun with Claude on mobile.

Today I (not a programmer, although programming for 20+ years, but mostly statistics) started building with Claude Code via Pro. Burned through my credits in about 3 hours. Got to MVP (happy tear in my eye). Actually one of the best looks I've ever gotten from my son. A look like, wow, dad, that's more than I'd ever think you could manage.

Tips:

- Plan ahead! I've had Claude tell me that a request would fit better way back on the roadmap. My roadmap manages me.

- Force Claude to build a test suite and give debugging info everywhere (backend, frontend).

- Claude and me work together on a clear TODO. He needs guidance as well as I do. It forgot a very central feature of my MVP. Do not yet know why. Asked kindly and it was built.

Questions (not specifically to you kind HN-folks, although tips are welcome):

- Why did I burn through my credits in 3 hours?

- How can I force Claude to keep committed to my plans, my CLAUDE.md, etc.

- Is there a way to ask Claude to check the entire project for consistency? And/Or should I accept that vibing will leave crusts spread around?