Vibecode Lisboa #17: Building production apps with Claude Code

Learn how to work with Claude Code to build and deploy production software. Claude Code is an AI-powered copilot utility from Anthropic (makers of Claude AI) that can be used to develop software applications even by people who don't know how to code themselves. It's a bit more involved and advanced than tools like Loveable and Bolt but with the right framework and approach, a solo founder can use it to build a fully-functional production application that accepts payments.

Why does this matter?
Solo founders often find themselves grid-locked and paralyzed by their inability to court a technical cofounder to help develop their envisioned product. How do you court a CTO with no product? But how do you build a product with no CTO?... the solo-founder's Catch-22.
Enter tools like Cursor and Claude Code. A determined solo founder with grit & patience can now power through technical obstacles and get the first version of their proposed application built and deployed to the point where it has traction and revenue. Building a profitable micro-SaaS from scratch is now entirely possible via these tools and what better way to find a CTO than to demonstrate the grit necessary to will an app into existence as a non-technical founder!

In this talk Sean will unveil the agentic used car finder product he's been building entirely with Claude Code. We'll cover:

• Best practices for how to develop a positive flywheel of continuous improvement vs. the normal downward slide towards entropy in a codebase
• How to set up Github for your source control
• How to implement a proper Continuous-integration / Continuous-deployment pipeline in Github to bulletproof your production app
• The mindset and approach for working with CC as a teammate
• Using MCP servers for up-to-date docs, direct database interactions and directly interfacing with your external systems
• Giving claude more autonomy with MCP access to Playwright to reproduce errors and troubleshoot problems on its own
• Giving claude MCP access to your project management system so it can self-serve go find and deliver the next prioritized features
• How to structure a /Guidance folder to capture tribal knowledge in the form of standups, feature and session retrospectives and blog posts

This will be a semi-technical talk but does not assume you have engineering experience. The audience is determined entrepreneurs and business owners willing to roll up their sleeves and learn. We'll keep everything within the realm of semi-technical people and use analogies to convey the concepts. By the end of the talk you'll have inspiration and understanding of how to get started with Claude Code for developing software.

These talks are always free to attend but if you get value from it please consider donating to our friends at Lisbon Project who are doing important, thankless work of integrating displaced refugees in the Lisbon community. Post any questions you have in advance below and Sean will cover them in his talk.