Built a daily affirmation iOS app in 8 weeks, solo, with AI as a co-pilot.

Here's what vibe coding actually looked like in practice. What AI handled well ~70% of boilerplate on first pass — navigation, state management, notification scheduling. I described the architecture in plain language, got working code back. Content generation, App Store copy drafts, edge case surfacing. That part felt like flow. Where the vibe broke: judgment calls AI suggested a standard onboarding. Generic, functional, wrong. Good UX requires knowing why someone opens an affirmation app at 7am — what emotional state they're in, what friction kills the habit before it forms. Scrapped it. Built from scratch. Same with notifications.