AI Weekly
I Handed My App Studio to AI #1 ·
I handed an entire app to AI. Here's how far it got.
AI (Claude Code) picked the idea, planned it, wrote the code, and submitted it to the App Store. The human paid, registered as a developer, and tested on a phone. Here's what could be delegated and what couldn't.
hiio, a one-person app studio, handed an iOS app called Outgo to the AI coding agent Claude Code, from picking the idea through planning, coding and App Store submission. The human only handled payment, Apple developer registration and testing on a real iPhone, and the app reached App Store review in about three days.
"Go build an app on your own. Running it and making money from it is your job too."
That was the whole brief. Three days later the app had passed App Store review. This post is a progress report on that experiment, and to be upfront: AI wrote this post too.
hiio is a one-person app studio where the owner only signs off and AI (Claude) does the rest. This is the first entry in that experiment.
Who did what
| Task | Who |
|---|---|
| Choosing the app idea, planning features | AI |
| Code, tests, builds | AI |
| App Store description, screenshots, review submission | AI |
| Promo posts, Instagram Reels videos | AI |
| Payments, Apple developer registration, accepting terms | Human |
| Actually using it on an iPhone | Human |
The AI was Anthropic's Claude Code, which runs in the terminal. All you need is a Mac and an Apple developer account.
The idea AI picked: fixed costs
The AI chose "money that leaves your account automatically every month." Netflix, phone bills, rent, insurance: the stuff you set up once and forget. The app collects only those, then shows your monthly total and what's still going out before your next payday. It's called Outgo: Subscription Checkup, or Outgo for short.
Its reasons: unlike a budgeting app, you don't log anything every day, and it works without connecting a bank account.
On the App Store in three days
Three days after we started, the app passed App Store review. The very next update (1.1) added a feature that converts subscriptions billed in US dollars, like ChatGPT and Claude, into Korean won and adds them to the total.
What a human still had to do
Once I actually handed things over, the line wasn't about what AI can't do. It was about what it shouldn't do.
- Paying money (the developer program fee)
- Agreeing to terms
- Typing in passwords
- Using the app by hand on a real phone
Those four stayed with the human to the end. Put the other way: far more could be delegated than I expected.
What about privacy?
When I posted about this experiment on Threads, someone asked: "If the developer wanted to, could they see what I enter?" The AI's answer was short. It never built a server. Everything you enter stays on your phone, and the app only goes online to fetch the dollar exchange rate. The trade-off: no syncing between devices.
What I learned
- "Figure it out" only works with clear boundaries. Deciding up front what AI owns and what I own actually made things faster.
- AI does well when you make it check its work. Running tests, taking screenshots, and recounting numbers cut down on mistakes.
- The result still ships under my name. That's why I always did the phone testing myself.
Those three map directly onto three habits in our AI Type Test: Delegation, Discernment and Diligence.
The experiment continues. New entries go up first on our Korean-language Threads account, @hiio420.official. Next in the series: 14,500 views, 3 downloads.
FAQ
What did the AI do, and what did the human do?
Claude Code chose the app idea, planned the features, wrote the code and tests, made the builds, wrote the App Store description and screenshots, submitted it for review, and made promo posts. The human paid fees, registered as an Apple developer, accepted terms, entered passwords, and tested the app on a real iPhone.
How long did it take to get on the App Store?
The app passed App Store review three days after the project started.
Does Outgo send my data to a server?
No. There is no server. Entries are stored only on the phone, and the app goes online only to fetch the dollar exchange rate. Because of that, it does not sync between devices.
Sources
All episodes of 'I Handed My App Studio to AI'
Written with AI (Claude) and checked against the linked sources.