Building software with AI without getting stuck halfway: the 3 things to understand before you start

To build software with AI without getting stuck halfway, you need to understand three things: how an app is structured, how to instruct AI agents without letting them lose control of the project and how to take what you built on your computer online. Even if you can’t code, a method that holds these three pieces together is enough.

I say this as a software developer with 10 years of experience, 5 of them in cybersecurity applied to software development. And I see it happen all the time to people who start on their own with AI.

Why do people building software with AI get stuck halfway?

In my experience, anyone who asks a vendor to build custom software gets quoted at least €20,000. That’s why many people try to build it themselves with AI.

The start usually goes well. The problems come later, and they’re always the same:

• the AI creates file after file and the project becomes hard to follow;
• the AI starts making mistakes and breaks one thing while fixing another;
• when it’s time to put everything online, you don’t know where to begin.

These three roadblocks share a cause: there’s no method. AI writes code fast, but without a clear structure and precise instructions the project slips out of its hands.

What are the 3 things to understand to build software with AI?

1. How an app is structured, even if you can’t code

A web app has parts with different jobs: the interface the user sees, the logic that processes data, the database that stores it. Understanding this structure tells you where a problem lives when something breaks.

Without this map, every error becomes a mystery. And asking the AI to "fix it" without knowing where to look leads straight to the classic case: a fix that breaks another part.

2. How to instruct AI agents without letting them lose control

An AI agent like Claude Code works well when it knows what to do, in which part of the project and within which limits. Vague instructions produce extra files, unrequested changes and code nobody asked for.

Instructing AI agents is a skill of its own. It means breaking the work into small steps, telling the agent what not to touch and checking the result before moving on.

3. How to take what you built on your computer online

An app that only runs on your computer can’t be used by anyone else. Putting it online means choosing where to host it, setting up the production database and managing the access keys for the services it uses.

This is the step where most people working alone stop. It’s also where security matters most: before publishing, run at least the basic security checks for an app built with AI.

What do you get once you understand these three things?

You get a reusable method. With the same sequence (structure, instructions to agents, deployment) you can build a SaaS, an internal tool or software for a client.

That’s why I created my new Vibe Coding course. We start from zero and build a real web app together, step by step, all the way to putting it online. People who take the course build the app alongside me instead of watching me code. At the end they have a working app and the method to do it again.

You’ll find the Vibe Coding video course and the Discord community on AI Builders Italia. If you’d rather follow a personal path built around your own project, there’s my 1:1 training.

If instead you need software for your company and would rather hand it to someone who does this for a living, here’s how I approach custom software development.

Where to start

If you’ve already got stuck halfway with AI, the code you’ve written so far still has value: it shows you which of the three pieces you were missing. Start again from there, one thing at a time, and your next project will make it online.