This is a submission for the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge: Building with Bolt.
So recently I participated in the World's largest hackathon presented by Bolt, and this was my first ever vibe coding experience. I truly understood the reason behind the name of this trend — and Bolt was everything that tied the whole journey together.
Here’s a little snippet from my hackathon experience and why you should use Bolt to get those hidden ideas off the paper and onto the screen.
The Idea
I wanted to create a smart productivity app that focuses on consistence building. It's more important to just show up than just crossing off tasks, because we all know checking something off is not the same as finishing them completely, but at the same time your goals are not heavy on you because no two days are the same. Basically something that you and I would actually use.
This idea had been sitting for months in my Notion.
It all began with the usual steps: signing up, creating an account, you know exchanging the usual hackathon pleasantries... and then came the magic: riding this armageddon of vibe coding!
Thanks to the prompting courses I had undertaken in the past, I had a clear framework. And frameworks really do help.
How Bolt Brought It All Together
There’s a coding section where Bolt McQueens its way into the code.
It also gives you a preview where you can see its work in action.
After multiple iterations and collaborating like two fellow developers, I was finally ready with my product — and it worked really well.
What I Loved About Bolt
- Seamless integrations — Whether it's a database, payment wall, or anything else, the connections are super smooth. Just copy credentials and plug into the environment Bolt sets up for you.
- One-click deployment — Deploying to Netlify was instant and flawless, something that has caused me issues in the past.
- Live preview magic — Real-time changes as you prompt! Even API keys were added as soon as I mentioned them.
- Debug-friendly — While not perfect, debugging was satisfying. You’re free to modify code post-token usage without limits.
What Could Be Better
- Limited free tokens — I ran out of tokens in the middle of an important iteration.
- Server restart confusion — When I typed "restart", it rebuilt everything from scratch. My mistake, but still frustrating.
- Audio features were clunky — My AI component didn’t grasp the concept well and took too long to work properly.
- Chat history is limited — Which makes referring back to previous conversations tough.
My 2 Cents for Future Vibe Coders
- Plan your access — Know your subscription/tokens limits and usage time frame before the hackathon starts.
- Prompt the rules — Give exact guidelines and judging criteria to your AI so it doesn’t hallucinate or drift.
- Experiment with categories — You’re not coding line-by-line, so get creative! Try adding payments, cloud features, and more.
- Prompt wisely — First, list what you want. Then, ask the AI to turn that into a proper prompt. This ensures you cover all points efficiently and token-consciously.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, it’s still vibe coding — so the final result might be a little rough at the edges.
But it’s amazing how quickly you can transform an idea into a fully functional app.
It’s no longer about just having the idea. It’s about how quickly you can execute and validate it.
And vibe coding is certainly making that possible.
Just in case you are curious;
This is what I am talking about: https://bolt.new/
Here is the project I made 2 hours under the deadline:https://tranquil-griffin-cfae52.netlify.app/ (Somethings are still a little underdone but I ran out both of tokens and time :0)
The youtube link: https://youtu.be/_tS3h5G9UsE?si=1QWipkfC6gMsDLI-
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