Start simple and use git branches early
A non-coder lists lessons from six months: start simple, stop working on main, plan features first, and don't let it become a 14-hour-a-day habit.
The learning curve
Expect weeks to learn prompting, git and debugging. Start with something small that you care about.
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Learn git, keys and backups as a beginner
After building a useful project tool in a month, the poster had to learn GitHub, hosting and API keys on the fly, and wrote rules after reading about agents deleting code.
Plan cheaply before building with Replit
A builder shares what worked: discuss architecture with a cheap planning mode first, then build one module at a time instead of handing over a full spec.
Learn to prompt and debug with a small first project
A developer who started out coding by hand says learning what to ask, what not to ask and how to debug AI mistakes took weeks.
Plan for the hours after the 20-minute demo
A non-technical community member rebuilt a broken bot with AI quickly, and is upfront that it took more hours to finish.