Developer field guide

Go from an empty folder to a real app, live at a URL you can send to a friend.

Ship Your First App — From Empty Folder to Live Website

24 pages Screen-friendly A5, prints on A4 and US Letter Read on screen, or print Last reviewed July 2026 Version 2026-07

You have watched people build whole apps by talking to an AI — and wondered how they get from an idea to a link. This 24-page field guide is that path, walked slowly, for someone who has never coded: build milestone by milestone with an AI coding assistant, and by the last chapter your app is on the internet, free, with a README, a screenshot, and a repeatable recipe for app number two.

Buy now · $11.24

Instant PDF download after checkout on Payhip. Nothing is shipped.

Cover of Ship Your First App — Previews show each page at reduced resolution; the download is the full print-quality PDF.

What's inside

How to pick a first app you will actually finish — five rules, three ready-to-build ideas (the book walks one of them end to end, and every prompt works for the others)
The minimal workbench: an editor, an AI assistant, git, and a free GitHub account — and nothing else
The milestone loop: describe → build → run → see it work → commit, with copy-paste prompts for every milestone and a "done means" check for each
Making it remember (browser storage), look right on a phone, and survive awkward input
When It Breaks: reading error messages without panic, the browser console in sixty seconds, and the three unstuck moves
Ship It: free deployment on GitHub Pages step by step, with Cloudflare Pages as the alternative in a plain comparison
Make It Yours: a README worth reading, a screenshot, and honest advice on the one step that can cost money (a custom domain)
App #2: the whole method as a one-page recipe, plus how to pick a second project one notch up
A plain-language glossary of every term used

Who it's for

Complete beginners who have never coded and want a real app live on the internet
Anyone who has watched people build with AI and wants the path walked slowly, end to end

Who it's not for

Experienced developers — this walks slowly on purpose; The Agent-Wise Developer picks up where it stops
Anyone expecting the AI assistant itself to be free — the examples use a tool with a paid plan, though the book names free-tier alternatives that work with every prompt

Everything you build and everywhere you publish in the book is free; the AI assistant itself may not be — the examples use a tool that requires a paid plan (from roughly $20/month as of July 2026), and the book names free-tier alternatives that work with every prompt. Platform screens and free tiers were last reviewed July 2026; where a dashboard has moved, the book tells you exactly what to search the platform's documentation for.

Guidance, not gospel — this is a practical organisation tool, not legal, tax, medical, or religious authority.