Building With AI: Why Structuring an App Idea Takes 20+ Prompts

Ka Rei On — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:42:19 +0000

Over the past few months I’ve been experimenting with AI app builders.

They’re impressive — you can generate working code, screens, and even deployable apps from prompts. But while testing different builders, I kept running into the same frustrating pattern.

The hardest part wasn’t building the app.

It was structuring the idea.

The Prompt Problem

Before an AI builder can generate something useful, the idea usually needs to be broken down into clear pieces like:

• features
• screen flow
• database tables
• API endpoints
• tech stack

Without that structure, the outputs tend to become messy or inconsistent.

So the workflow often looks like this:

Prompt 1
“Build an AI dog training app”

Prompt 2
“Add login and user accounts”

Prompt 3
“Create a database schema”

Prompt 4
“Add reminders and notifications”

Prompt 5
“Create a dashboard”

Prompt 6
“Add dog profiles”

And before long you're 10–20 prompts deep just trying to get the structure right.

The Experiment

To explore this problem, we built a small experiment called Vibe Coding Coach.

The idea is simple:

You type one idea prompt, such as:

“AI dog training assistant”

The system generates a structured blueprint including:

• core features
• screen flow
• database schema
• API endpoints
• tech stack suggestions

The goal isn’t to replace AI builders.

It’s to give them a clean starting structure so builders spend less time shaping prompts and more time actually building.

Example Output Structure

For the prompt:

“AI dog training assistant”

The blueprint might include:

Features

personalized training plans
behavior tracking
progress dashboard
reminder notifications

Database tables

users
dogs
training_sessions
progress_logs

Screens

onboarding
dashboard
dog profile
training plan generator
progress tracker

API endpoints

user authentication
dog profile management
training session logging
progress analytics

Once you have that structure, it's much easier to plug the blueprint into an AI builder or development workflow.

Early Beta

Right now we’re running the tool as a small beta while we gather feedback and see how people use the outputs.

The goal is to learn:

• what parts of the blueprint are useful
• what parts developers ignore
• what structure works best for AI builders

If you're experimenting with AI builders and want to see the experiment, you can check it out here:

https://vibecoachcoding.com

Curious About Other Workflows

One thing I’m especially curious about:

How are other developers structuring ideas before generating apps with AI?

Are you using:

• prompt templates
• documentation-first workflows
• architecture planning tools
• something else entirely?