Does not understanding a single line of code mean you can't build an app?

Hi everyone! 👋

I'm Tony, a 22-year-old business student from France. 6 months ago, I had an idea at work for a personal tracking app to help people stay disciplined and reach their goals.

Staying disciplined today is tough, especially when you're trying to build something on your own with NO BUDGET, NO KNOWLEDGE, NO TIME, and NO HELP. With zero coding skills, I thought my project was dead before it even started.

I tried Lovable, Emergent, and plenty of other "vibe coding" tools, but nothing worked the way I wanted. Generic interfaces, web-only limitations, lack of native features, overly simplistic setups... There were too many reasons not to spend my limited money on them.

Then I started using Claude Code. It’s excellent for building from scratch, even if you don’t know a single line of code. But after endless vibe coding, I realized something: AI is still AI. It doesn't have eyes or a sense of design. It just writes code for the most functional, generic interface possible.

So, I decided to learn the core skills myself: designing in Figma, connecting to Claude Code via MCP, and using the Claude agent inside Xcode to build natively with SwiftUI.

Even if I'm not an expert yet, I now understand what I'm doing. It takes time, but I truly believe that building a real, reliable product requires getting your hands dirty and finding your own solutions.

Today, I’m building Shaper, and I’m reaching a point where I need real user feedback to improve the experience and hunt down remaining bugs.

For other non-technical or solo makers here:

1. Have you tried building apps using AI or "vibe coding" tools?

2. What were the biggest limitations you hit, and did you end up learning to code or design yourself?

I’d love to hear about your experience and exchange views in the comments!

(P.S. If you're an iOS user looking to stay disciplined and want to test the early beta on TestFlight, drop a comment or DM me! I'd be happy to give lifetime premium access to early testers to thank you for your help.)