The 10-Point Checklist That Separates Apps That Last From Apps That Break

There has never been a better time to build an app.

But building the first version is the easy part.

Keeping it alive and trustworthy? That's where most people get caught.

Here's what professional development teams do that most vibe coders don't know they're missing.

1. Source control. Git tracks every change you make, forever. If your agent breaks something, you can reverse it in seconds. Think Google Docs version history, but for your entire app.

2. Build locally first. Build on your machine. Test on your machine. Break things on your machine. Your live app is not a sandbox once real users are in it.

3. Specifications before code. Write down what the app should do in plain English before building it. Give that to your agent as requirements. Let it write tests. Then build.

4. Keep secrets out of code. API keys and passwords go in environment variables, not in your code files. Your agent knows exactly what to do when you ask for this.

5. Automate your deploys. A deployment process you do manually from memory is a ritual, not a process. Automate the steps. Make it repeatable.

6. Use separate environments. Local → Staging → Production. Test changes before they reach real users. Pilots use simulators for a reason.

7. Know what your app is doing. Logs. Error tracking. Uptime alerts. You should find out about problems before your users tell you.

8. Database changes as code. Every change to your database structure should be a file in source control. Not a manual edit you'll have to remember later.

9. Security from the start. Authentication, input validation, no plain-text credentials. Building security in is cheaper than retrofitting it.

10. Document as you go. Six months from now you will not remember why you built it that way. Your agent can maintain a README. Ask it to.

Your agent knows all of this. It was trained on decades of software engineering.

You just have to know to ask.

🚀

- James

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