Here's the app I made in 4 hours

Kayla Jones — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 02:22:34 +0000

So, I built an app for myself. It's a personal tool called So Very Word.

It's a vocabulary app, and I made it for a pretty simple reason: I say "so" and "very" all the time, and I wanted a quick way to reach for a better word instead. That's really all this app is.

I built it using Claude Code, and I've been trying something new lately — logging every decision I make when I build an app. This one ended up taking 48 decisions, put together in about four hours over two days.

It's a simple application, and I deployed it through Vercel.

Here's how it works.

When you open it, there's a field at the bottom that just says "so very," and you type a word into it. So let's say I want to write "I'm so happy" or "I'm so excited to see you" — I'd type in "excited." It thinks for a second, shows "looking," and then gives me a list of stronger words I could use instead of "so excited" or "so happy."

So I'll get something like "overexcited" or "agog," and if I tap on one, it pulls up a definition, or a few. "Agog," for example, is "a state of high anticipation, excitement, or interest" — not one I'd reach for, honestly, but "overexcited" works, "stimulated" is a good one, "thrilled" works too.

And that's it. That's the entire app.

I made 48 decisions for version one in four hours over two days.

All of the definitions and word suggestions come from a free API called Datamuse, which was simple to use and simple to set up.

There are also a couple of small touches I care about: each word shows its pronunciation off to the right, and next to that there's a color-coded bar. Green means it's a strong match, and those sit at the top; as you move down the list, the bar shifts from gold to maroon as the matches get weaker.

The thing I was most intentional about was the UI. I wanted it to feel seamless, with as few taps as possible — which is exactly why the input sits at the bottom of the screen, right where your thumb already is, instead of floating in the middle. I just wanted the whole thing to feel effortless to use.

If you'd like to use it too, you can.

For version two, the main thing I'd add is an external link button out to something like dictionary.com, so you could open the full entry whenever you wanted more. But for now, it does exactly what I needed it to do, in the least amount of time.

It was a simple project, but I kept myself organized and logged every decision along the way.

It's simple, it's to the point, and honestly, that's all that matters.

Live Preview: https://so-very-word.vercel.app/

Check out the video I made about it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vfMKJ0PVXIo

Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kaylamichjones

Kayla

How many decisions does the AI make without me knowing?

Kayla Jones — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:13:37 +0000

I ran an experiment after reading a couple of chapters from Alan Knox's book, AI Builders.

The Experiment: To keep track of the decisions the AI and I make in a log for a simple application.

To set up my project, I used the 'prompting for options' approach that Alan talks about to establish a strong foundation for my app.

I made around 20 decisions regarding scope, my data model, overall design, etc.. This gave me a great starting point to start building.

Once it was time to start implementing, I let off the reigns and let the AI use my 20 decisions to build the four screens out.

The Result: The AI made about 54 decisions without me.

I got a result that looked good overall. The app checked off the boxes in my original plan, but there were things implemented that I didn't agree to.

19 of those were substantive (search function, day-grouping, dark mode, undo delete, tag management, etc.)
~35 were smaller implementations (FAB style, field order, placeholder text, notification copy, data-layer storage details, etc.)

Alan brings up an excellent point that in building with AI, there is a significant number of decisions being made by the AI that we have no idea about. And these silent decisions slowly start to build technical debt.

Imagine if I hadn't made the first 20 decisions for the AI to go off of. Who knows what result I would've gotten.

The more informed decisions you make about your app, the better.

After the Initial Experiment

After seeing how many decisions get made without me knowing, I now take the 'decisions then log it' approach. I prompt for options, then I weigh the tradeoffs, then I decide, then I log that decision.

While building Today, I Learned, I also built Decision Explorer AI. It's a Claude skill that keeps track of all your decisions, their tradeoffs, and more.

I found this tool very valuable when I was adding new features because the tool references my existing decisions and reasonings to help me make the best choice for my app.

The image below shows a list of the decisions I accepted/made before building, while building the app, and after submitting the app for review to the App Store.

This image is the result of those decisions. I made a total of 103 decisions for version 1.0.

To begin tracking your app decisions, you can find the free Decision Explorer AI template on GitHub.

DEV Community: Kayla Jones

Here's the app I made in 4 hours

How many decisions does the AI make without me knowing?