Claude Code

Let me be upfront: the app I’m about to describe is useful for maybe three weeks out of the year. It helps you figure out when to tap a maple tree for sap. That’s it. The rest of the year it just sits there, waiting for February to roll around again. I can’t think of much else targeting such a specific, and time-limited, niche…

A year ago, I wouldn’t have built this. Not because it’s hard, but because the return on investment is laughable. A few weeks of utility for evenings of development time, if I finish it at all, is not worth it. I’d just check the weather forecast myself, squint at the overnight lows, and make a guess like I did last year. The motivation simply wouldn’t survive contact with the reality of actually sitting down to build it.

I’ve been experimenting with using Claude Code on iOS to build projects from my phone. It’s been a great learning experience, and I wrote about the broader experiment in I Built an App That’s Only Useful Three Weeks a Year. But before that project went smoothly, I hit some friction that’s worth sharing on its own.

Most of these tips are specific to starting greenfield projects from your phone. If you’re making changes to an existing repo that already has the right files in place, the experience is significantly smoother from the start.