Hey Devs.
Over the last week, I vibecoded my way through building a full-stack application Vivezia.com. I built it in 6 days, with 250+ messages between me using Base44 - React, Supabase, AWS, and more. It was my first time combining AI support with real production-level frontend/backend work — and it was a ride.
Here are the 10 biggest lessons I learned along the way
🚀 1. AI Is Fast... Until It Isn’t
The AI got me 70% there with most features — quickly scaffolding pages, handling layout, even building basic auth.
But when it got stuck, it really got stuck:
Suggesting fixes that didn't work
Forgetting prior context
Breaking already-working features
You’ll need to know when to stop trusting it and just dive into the code manually.
🧠 2. Backups Are Your Best Friend
Base44's AI constantly tries to optimize and improve your code, but sometimes it over-corrects. A small request like changing the UI can ripple through unrelated files, deleting or breaking working parts.
📁 3. Works on Base44 ≠ Works on Your Machine
Exporting your project doesn’t mean it’ll instantly run on local or production. What runs clean on Base44 can throw errors locally — so budget time for reconfiguring and testing.
🧱 4. Base44 Comes with Opinions
Base44 has a lot pre-wired — but not with Supabase, AWS, and other services. Great if you want a fast start but has limitations.
But... it also assumes you're following a certain structure.
If you want custom routing, offline-first logic, or minimal dependencies, you might need extract the project out of the AI-builder.
🔍 5. AI cant read your mid
When you ask Base44 to move a UI component, it doesn’t automatically move the related functions or logic along with it. To ensure everything keeps working, you need to explicitly ask the AI to include the associated functions and state management. Otherwise, the moved UI might just act as a placeholder without the functionality behind it.
⚠️ 6. AI Breaks Stuff Without Warning
Sometimes you’ll ask it to “refactor” or “clean up” a page, and it’ll silently:
Rename a function and forget to update the call
Delete a hook it thinks is unused
Remove context you were relying on
⌛ 7. Performance Isn’t Automatic
I assumed Base44 and AI-generated code would be “optimized,” but turns out:
Some queries weren’t debounced
Some components re-rendered too often
Voice input wasn't throttled
Once the app grew, it started lagging. I had to manually optimize rendering, memoize components, and clean up effects.
🛠️ 8. You Still Need to Understand the Tools
Even with AI help, you can’t skip fundamentals. I had to:
Read Supabase docs to understand auth/session logic
The AI can help scaffold — but not deploy, debug, or recover when it breaks.
🔄 9. AI Likes to Overwrite
If you ask Base44 to update a feature, it might overwrite more than it should — removing custom styles, hooks, or even accessibility attributes.
This is especially risky when using voice input, animations, or accessibility components.
🔍 10. When It Doesn’t Work, Break It Down and Ask ChatGPT for Step-by-Step Instructions
Sometimes, Base44 or AI-generated code just won’t work as expected. Instead of asking for big fixes or vague edits, I found it super helpful to:
Ask ChatGPT to give me a clear, step-by-step plan to implement the feature or fix the bug.
Take those instructions and feed them into Base44 in smaller, focused tasks.
This helped avoid confusing the AI with too much context at once and gave me more control over the process.
Conclusion: Using Base44 and ChatGPT to build my app was a wild but fun experience. AI helped me move fast, but it wasn’t perfect — sometimes things broke, and I had to jump in and fix stuff myself.
The biggest takeaway? Treat AI like a helpful teammate, not a magic wand. Make backups, be clear about what you want, and break problems down into small steps.
Project: https://vivezia.com/
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