Last month, my AI-built tool crashed on launch

In March I had AI build me a small bookkeeping tool. It ran fine locally. I sent it to a friend who runs e-commerce, opened it on her phone — blank white screen. I was honestly lost. I don't read code, so how was I supposed to know what broke?

Micky's 4-step flow: make AI prove itself

Then I caught a podcast interview with Micky Shimeles, who's taught 100,000+ people to build with AI. His 4-step workflow isn't about making AI write faster — it's about making AI pass every checkpoint before anything ships:

1. Isolate: Every AI task gets its own copy of the codebase, so multiple AIs can work in parallel without stepping on each other.

2. Build the skeleton: Lay out the app's layers first (what's UI, what's logic) so AI writes against a clear structure, not into the void.

3. Self-verify: Have AI record its screen and compare before/after changes — eyeball-test for what's broken.

4. Human gate: A second AI reviews the diff (he uses Greptile). Only merge into main when it scores 5/5.

I know a Shenzhen indie dev named Ajie who builds Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) marketing tools. After he set this up, he shipped 27 features over three months with only 2 carrying bugs. Before that, 6 out of 10 things broke.

What does replicating this actually cost?

Money: $0 extra. You're already paying for Cursor or Claude Code ($15-30/month) — just use what you've got.

Time: 1-2 hours the first time. Mostly spent writing one file called "AGENTS.md" (think of it as your AI instruction manual) — tell AI your project structure, naming rules, and which files to never touch.

Technical bar: Knowing how to drive tools like Cursor, Bolt, or Lovable. You don't need to read code.

First step: Open your project's root folder, create a file named AGENTS.md, and write three lines — "what this project does", "how files are organized", "naming rules". Save it. Next time AI touches anything, it'll read this file automatically.

Which stage are you at?

Just starting out: Don't roll out all four. Steps 1 + 4 are enough. Write the instruction manual, let AI self-check before delivery.

Have 1-2 clients: Add step 2. Spend half an hour drawing out your page structure (hand-drawn is fine) so AI writes to a structure instead of freelancing it.

Scaling up: Bring in step 3 — let AI record before/after screen comparisons. If you're juggling two or three projects at once, this step is a lifesaver.

Honest take: this whole thing isn't for everyone. If your project is three pages and you're staring at it yourself, you're fine. But the moment you hire, outsource, or change things 5+ times a week, the crash time you save is pure profit.