I constructed an iOS app in simply two days with simply my voice – and it was electrifying

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Xcode 26.1 AI was unusable. Xcode 26.3 AI is a giant leap.
• AI-driven migration delivered large change in underneath two days.
• One rule fastened it: no background brokers, frequent standing updates.

I’m certain that the time will come when AI coding would not seem to be some wonderful new magic ripped from the longer term. However not at this time.

The challenge I have been engaged on for the final two days counts because the third main product I’ve accomplished utilizing AI coding. Really, it is extra just like the third main challenge set, as a result of I added 4 premium add-ons to my WordPress safety plugin, I constructed iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch apps for my 3D printer filament supervisor, and I’ve simply made main inroads right into a surprisingly highly effective stitching sample supervisor on iOS.

Additionally: Xcode 26.3 lastly brings agentic coding to Apple’s developer instruments

I’ve discovered that after I work in a special AI setting, I wish to work on a novel codebase. That method, I do not get totally different AIs confused about the identical factor. So when Apple launched its Xcode 26.3 candidate, supposedly with considerably enhanced AI integration, I wanted a brand new challenge to work on with it.

By combining a tightly built-in AI assistant and voice dictation (extra on that later) to construct a strong app with built-in machine studying capabilities, I actually do really feel like I am dwelling sooner or later.

The challenge

My spouse recommended I do a stitching sample supervisor, one thing to assist her (and probably different sewists) handle their massive stash of paper and digital stitching patterns.

It is a challenge much like the filament supervisor, in that it makes use of pictures and NFC tags to trace the areas of bodily gadgets. Nevertheless it’s additionally a wildly totally different product in that stitching patterns have many extra attributes than rolls of 3D printer filament.

This isn’t a small market. There could also be a couple of hundred thousand 3D printing geeks within the US, as much as possibly a max of 1,000,000. That pales compared to the stitching market, the place artful sewists quantity round 30 million within the US and Canada, in line with the Crafting Business Alliance.

So, yeah, I selected this challenge principally as a result of my spouse favored the concept. However the complete accessible market is big sufficient that if I made a decision to take all of it the way in which to an App Retailer product, there’s some there there.

I attempted Xcode earlier than

I attempted utilizing Apple’s Coding Intelligence again in November. I used to be in a position to make use of Xcode 26.1 to vibe code a easy “Hello, world” app, which I documented in my how-to article. However as quickly as I attempted to get it to do extra, it bought silly. Then it hung.

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At the moment, I used it with each OpenAI’s Codex and Claude Code. That method, it did not should depend on Apple’s personal AI. However I could not paste in any screenshots for it to interpret. I could not get it to run for a couple of or two steps. It could not create any of the configuration recordsdata wanted to create an app for any of Apple’s platforms. And it bought caught. Rather a lot.

It was, just about, unusable, at the very least for vibe coding.

As an alternative, again in November, I used Claude Code within the terminal to create highly effective iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch apps. These used NFC tags and the interior photograph capabilities of the iPhone to assist me arrange my 3D printing filament. The problem when you will have loads of 3D printers, every of which might help 4 totally different spools of filament, is preserving monitor of what is on every printer and what’s accessible in your filament stash.

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It took me a couple of hours a day, over 11 days, to construct the primary model of the iPhone app. It took a couple of extra days every to construct the Mac and Watch apps. I take advantage of that app day by day as a result of it solves a private productiveness problem. For extra particulars, you’ll be able to learn this text.

Claude Code, working out of the standard terminal, was nice. It might do all that Xcode 26.1 could not, together with configuring these recordsdata.

Now there’s Xcode 26.3

Xcode 26.3 is not Xcode 26.1. When it got here to the built-in AI assistant, Xcode 26.1 was simply plain unhealthy information. Xcode 26.3’s developer preview, with some tolerable exceptions, is superior.

Let me let you know about what I in-built lower than two days utilizing Xcode 26.3. Any longer on this article, after I say Xcode or “the new Xcode,” I imply the developer preview of Xcode 26.3.

Additionally: Need native vibe coding? This AI stack replaces Claude Code and Codex – and it is free

I wrote in regards to the new Xcode a couple of days in the past on this article. The massive change is that the brand new Xcode helps agentic operations and might let these brokers faucet into nearly all the things that wants doing. The brokers even have entry to Apple’s coding documentation, which proved to be very useful.

To get began, I made a replica of my filament spool challenge, renamed it for stitching patterns, and set to work with Xcode and Claude Agent. I did not even actually get to work on it for 2 full days. I had loads of different work to do for ZDNET yesterday. I additionally needed to cease early as a result of it ran out of token allocation for some time. As we speak, I needed to cease early sufficient to put in writing this text.

Even so, Claude, Xcode, and I inserted 52,947 new traces of code and deleted 10,626 traces of code over 689 recordsdata. The present codebase consists of 116 code recordsdata totaling 32,381 traces of code. This consists of some tremendous cool machine studying additions I made utilizing Apple’s newest AI/ML libraries.

Additionally: I attempted a Claude Code various that is native, open supply, and fully free – the way it works

I do not code full time. Not even shut. I steal a couple of hours right here and there from all my different tasks. But when I have been in a position to commit full time to coding, I estimate it might have taken me an absolute rock-bottom minimal of 4 to six months to do the identical work I did for a part of yesterday and a part of this morning.

For me, as an impartial lone developer, the pressure multiplier of AI coding is nothing in need of breathtaking.

The half that broke

There have been two essential phases to the challenge to date. The primary was migration. The second is including and eradicating options.

Migration is rather a lot tougher than you’ll suppose. As I stated, I copied the unique challenge folder and renamed it. However all the things inside was oriented towards spools of filament. All the pieces on this challenge must be oriented round stitching patterns.

It isn’t doable to only do a search and change. A lot of strings of characters needed to change, however so did all the information buildings, in addition to all of the app configuration information. That is good work for an AI. It’s totally technical, very exact, and really, very tedious.

That is additionally the place I nearly gave up.

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The expertise of vibe coding in (at the very least the preview construct of) Xcode 26.3 alternates between exhilarating and wonderful, and “what the hell just happened to me?” and “did I just destroy everything?” It isn’t feeling.

Think about you are on the Starship Enterprise. You go to warp, and all the colours are streaming previous you at warp pace. It is exhilarating. It is an unimaginable feeling.

After which, rapidly, all the things goes darkish. You see a tiny glimmer of sunshine, and also you understand you are in some cave someplace. You don’t have any concept what occurred, the place you might be, or how you bought there.

That is what it feels wish to vibe code in Xcode with a number of brokers working. On this new construct of Xcode, Claude and Xcode love to run a number of parallel brokers.

You are cooking alongside simply fantastic, after which instantly nothing. The system hangs. You don’t have any concept the place within the set of modifications you might be. There’s nothing you are able to do about it besides give up Xcode and begin again up. The massive hope is that nothing bought fully destroyed. This isn’t feeling.

This deep, darkish second of despair just isn’t brought on by only one factor. It isn’t brought on by simply the AI agent working out of context and needing extra tokens. And it isn’t brought on by only a background agent getting caught as a result of it would not have permissions and is not reporting again. And it isn’t brought on by simply having a number of background brokers making modifications on prime of one another, inflicting all of them to cease working.

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It is brought on by all of those conditions. Hastily, you are cooking alongside properly, after which the subsequent factor you already know, you are caught in concrete for 3 hours. Do you restart Xcode? Do you wait? Do you would like as soon as once more you’d listened to your mother and gone to legislation faculty as an alternative of engineering faculty?

In my case, I launched one other occasion of Claude Code within the terminal and requested it to analyze. That was useful as a result of it was in a position to determine caught processes. However working Claude Code within the terminal defeated the entire objective of doing issues within the Xcode IDE.

There would not seem like a approach to cease working background agent duties, so they only hold working. So far as I can inform, there isn’t a approach to keep within the Xcode IDE and verify their standing, and Xcode will not allow you to cease them until you simply abnormally give up the appliance solely.

It bought worse. Hastily, the terminal Claude Code occasion informed me I had used up 91% of my utilization cap and was about to hit 100%. That resulted in a 3-hour and 19-minute work stoppage. The stalled Xcode background brokers that ran for greater than 3 hours had consumed most of my token allocation. Apparently, even idle or caught periods can eat into the session price range due to the context they maintain.

When Claude Code does a compression within the terminal, it stops working for fairly some time. However at the very least there is a message there telling you what is taking place. With Xcode and its penchant for launching background brokers, there’s nothing. Apple, when you take no different recommendation from me at this time, take this: you want higher administration and visibility for background brokers. Stat.

That was yesterday. In a single day, I thought of it. This morning, I inserted a brand new instruction into the overall CLAUDE.MD directions for this challenge. I informed it, “Do NOT use background agents or background tasks. Do NOT split into multiple agents. Update me regularly on each step. Do NOT run steps that take more than a minute or two without having an update heartbeat.”

Additionally: Is your AI agent as much as the duty? 3 methods to find out when to delegate

As we speak was very productive. Very productive. Nothing ran within the background. No agent tried racing in opposition to the opposite brokers. Claude and Xcode simply did their job. It took about 20 minutes for the AI to scrub up the migration mess from yesterday.

After which it was time so as to add new stuff. That is the place issues bought actually enjoyable.

The cool new hotness

So here is the factor. Sewists love them their patterns. Rather a lot. For many years, patterns got here in little paper envelopes. You have seen them. Possibly you have used them or seen your mother purchase them. Paper envelope patterns nonetheless exist, however digital PDF-based patterns are additionally large. So are patterns that are available books of patterns.

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My spouse needed to handle all three forms of patterns within the new app. As you’ll be able to see from the image, she has containers and containers of paper patterns. We even have a server share devoted to her digital patterns. And there is a whole bookcase crammed with sample books.

Though I am together with help for digital patterns and books of patterns, my consideration was principally centered on the paper envelope-style patterns. That is as a result of they might be managed in a method much like my filament spools. They might be tracked with NFC tags and moved from location to location.

However there’s additionally a giant distinction. The back and front covers of sample envelopes are like gold to the sewists who gather them. They present what’s being constructed, present inspiration, and in addition usually present helpful and crucial buy data for all of the provides wanted to make regardless of the sample describes.

Additionally: How I turned an previous laptop computer into a house doc station – and reduce down on paperwork chaos

My app needed to seize very high-quality pictures of these back and front covers. Primarily, I needed to construct a scanner app into my sample database. Not solely does the app should seize a picture, it has to determine what a part of the picture is the sample envelope, then straighten it, reshape it so corners are proper angles, and crop it.

After which I needed to do another factor. Paper patterns are principally listed by vendor title (Simplicity, McCalls, and so forth) and sample quantity. I needed my app to extract these two items of information from the photographs, after which let customers select them for naming and indexing the patterns.

To do that, I wanted to make use of Apple’s machine studying APIs, most of that are fairly new. It seems that Claude Code, working within the terminal, wasn’t acquainted with most of them. However Claude Agent, working in Xcode, was in a position to simply question Apple’s documentation and create these options.

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I bumped into one different snag. The AI in my app was having a tough time distinguishing between the numbers which are a part of bar codes and the sample numbers. So I had Claude and Xcode practice my app on tips on how to determine bar codes and eradicate them from consideration from the sample quantity choice course of.

As a bonus, since my app needed to OCR the photographs with the intention to discover the seller title and quantity, I added an OCR information subject to every sample, so customers can search on something on the entrance or again cowl. I additionally determined to avoid wasting the bar code quantity and the precise bar code with every sample, simply in case the person desires it for one thing.

Claude, Xcode, and I did much more in our brief improvement cycle. My large purpose was to get the AI to construct machine studying into the app and make it work by the point this text was printed. We met that purpose.

My spouse is fairly stoked in regards to the app. I am having a blast engaged on it. So I will in all probability hold tinkering with it over the weeks till it meets all her wants. I am undecided if I will put it up on the App Retailer. I do have plans to do an article known as one thing like, “How to vibe code your way onto the App Store,” so that you would possibly see extra of it or the filament app in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.

Different tidbits

There may be one usability function within the Xcode implementation I like much more than Claude Code’s terminal implementation. You may Command-V paste a picture into Xcode’s AI assistant. In Claude Code, you must use Management-V. It isn’t a giant factor, besides that I’ve a long time of muscle reminiscence doing Command-V to stick on a Mac, and Management-V takes me out of movement. So I like how Xcode does it.

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The AI assistant may do builds, which implies that it may possibly see if the code works. If there are errors, it may possibly repair them by itself. Generally, it runs for an hour or extra all by itself. As we speak, that allow me take a stroll within the park (actually), whereas the AI group of Xcode and Claude have been busy determining tips on how to correctly orient and crop a sample cowl.

Talking of movement, I have been utilizing Wispr Circulation to dictate to Xcode. I might say about 75% of the prompting I did to the AI was accomplished utilizing Wispr Circulation. The product has a vibe coding mode that made it work rather well throughout coding. I used to make use of the Mac’s personal dictation, but it surely’s notoriously unreliable. I’ve discovered Wispr Circulation way more dependable.

Why do I dictate to my improvement setting, you ask? I’ve an 8-pound Yorkipoo that likes to twist up on my left shoulder and be held by Daddy whereas he sleeps. So, in fact, I do a ton of my at-computer work utilizing just one hand. Dictation makes this doable, and Wispr Circulation does an incredible job of doing so successfully.

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As for this being a developer candidate for Xcode 26.3, Apple says the total launch can be up on the Mac App Retailer throughout the month. So keep tuned. I am hoping it does one thing about managing these runaway, rogue background duties.

However even with these troublesome beasties harshing my coding buzz, I’ve to confess that I am having a ton of enjoyable vibe coding my method into my spouse’s iPhone’s coronary heart.

Have you ever tried agentic or vibe coding workflows but? In that case, what labored properly and what broke down? Do you suppose tighter IDE integration beats utilizing AI instruments from the terminal, or do you like preserving them separate? How involved are you about background brokers, runaway duties, and token utilization when AI is deeply embedded in improvement instruments? And eventually, do you see your self trusting AI to deal with large-scale refactors or migrations, or does that also really feel like a step too far? Tell us within the feedback under.

You may observe my day-to-day challenge updates on social media. Be sure you subscribe to my weekly replace e-newsletter, and observe me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Fb at Fb.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, on Bluesky at @DavidGewirtz.com, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.