Today, I gave the Replit AI Agent a Real test. I built an Employee...
John Rush@johnrush
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Dec 13, 2024
~2 min read
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Today, I gave the Replit AI Agent a Real test.
I built an Employee Vacation tracker app.
100% AI prompting, no code.
I hated the process until I mastered it.
The app I built is so cool that I bought a domain to let you all use it for free.
Every step, with great details 🧵:
I built an Employee Vacation tracker app.
100% AI prompting, no code.
I hated the process until I mastered it.
The app I built is so cool that I bought a domain to let you all use it for free.
Every step, with great details 🧵:
0:58
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1. I described my app in a prompt.
The more detailed the prompt, the better.
- asking for ReactJs and Shadcn helps to make things look pretty
- asking for data persistence helps to output a real fullstack app connected to a database instead of just a demo
- cover big picture
The more detailed the prompt, the better.
- asking for ReactJs and Shadcn helps to make things look pretty
- asking for data persistence helps to output a real fullstack app connected to a database instead of just a demo
- cover big picture
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2. Instead of asking it to build the final app right away, it turns out it's better to iterate with versions.
Whenever I asked for too many things, it failed to deliver. So after my initial generation, I started prompting it by grouping similar tasks.
Whenever I asked for too many things, it failed to deliver. So after my initial generation, I started prompting it by grouping similar tasks.
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3. It produced the UI that looked good, but I wanted to change it. I tried asking it for a visual change and it messed up the whole thing.
I tried it few more times and gave up and rolled back all the UI changes.
At this point I was about to give up, but then I tried smth new
I tried it few more times and gave up and rolled back all the UI changes.
At this point I was about to give up, but then I tried smth new
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4. I sketched a quick mockup of what I wanted and attached it to my prompt.
It saved my experiment. Suddenly, the whole UI changed to what I wanted.
@amasad, maybe you need some native UI sketching tool inside the agent. It'd solve a lot of the problems.
It saved my experiment. Suddenly, the whole UI changed to what I wanted.
@amasad, maybe you need some native UI sketching tool inside the agent. It'd solve a lot of the problems.
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5. As I was prompting it more and more, the app became pretty complex and replit started failing at fixing the bugs.
It went into an annoying loop 😠
e.g. it couldn't fix the issue of adding a new vacation.
Then I came up with a pretty smart idea that I'm proud of :)
It went into an annoying loop 😠
e.g. it couldn't fix the issue of adding a new vacation.
Then I came up with a pretty smart idea that I'm proud of :)
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6. I asked to log more info into console, so it's easier to understand the error.
From that moment, I started asking it to log literally anything i could log and the whole endless never bug fixing loops stopped and it fixed all the bugs right in the next try 😵💫😍
From that moment, I started asking it to log literally anything i could log and the whole endless never bug fixing loops stopped and it fixed all the bugs right in the next try 😵💫😍
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7. My next steps were repetitive:
> I'd ask for few new features
> test them, report bugs
> then get them fixed
> then ask for more features....
> I'd ask for few new features
> test them, report bugs
> then get them fixed
> then ask for more features....
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8. It all took me 2 hours.
I got exactly what I wanted.
It would have taken a week with a human developer to build, iterate, develop UI/UX, test, improve and get exactly what I got here.
Use it 100% free: trackvacations.com
Reply with feedback, I'll pass it to the agent
I got exactly what I wanted.
It would have taken a week with a human developer to build, iterate, develop UI/UX, test, improve and get exactly what I got here.
Use it 100% free: trackvacations.com
Reply with feedback, I'll pass it to the agent
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9. That's it.
I plan to try all other AI Agents & Ai Developers.
I'll build a micro product with each and share my findings. The next in line are Windsurf, Cursor and 14 more.
Besides being excited about AI in coding, I'm also building these startups:
↳ unicornplatform.com
↳ listingbott.com
↳ seobotai.com
↳ devhunt.org
↳ see the rest on johnrush.me
I plan to try all other AI Agents & Ai Developers.
I'll build a micro product with each and share my findings. The next in line are Windsurf, Cursor and 14 more.
Besides being excited about AI in coding, I'm also building these startups:
↳ unicornplatform.com
↳ listingbott.com
↳ seobotai.com
↳ devhunt.org
↳ see the rest on johnrush.me