Building Aliō: How I Shipped an App with AI Tools

Evgeniy Molozhenko — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 08:06:45 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I launched Aliō — a tiny iPhone app for meditation. The idea is simple: open the app, tap Start, and you’re meditating in three seconds.

Instead of talking about the product itself, I want to share the process. Because everything — the app, the website, even the launch materials — was built with the help of AI tools.

From Idea to Prototype in Days

The frustration that sparked Aliō was simple: most meditation apps felt heavy. Sign-ups, subscriptions, course selections… all before you even get to breathe. I wanted the opposite: just one Start button.

So I opened Windsurf, my AI-powered coding editor, and started prompting:

“Create a minimal iOS app with one Start button.”
“Add a screen with settings.”
“Keep the design clean and distraction-free.”

Within a few evenings, I had a working prototype in SwiftUI. Not perfect — but good enough to test the vibe.

Writing and Design Without Bottlenecks

I’m not a designer or a copywriter, so normally this part slows me down. But here’s what I did:

Used ChatGPT for App Store descriptions, Product Hunt blurbs, and LinkedIn posts.
Generated translations into several languages.
Even the app icon was AI-generated.

What used to take weeks of back-and-forth took just a few hours.

The Website, Simplified

For the landing page, I went back to Windsurf:

“Add a section with a headline, subtitle, and a download button.”
“Keep it minimal — one page, no clutter.”

After a few iterations, I had a website that felt right for Aliō: calm, simple, focused.

What This Experience Taught Me

The biggest lesson: one person can now ship a complete product — code, design, copy, everything.

Not because you’re suddenly an expert in every area, but because AI fills the gaps:

Windsurf handled coding and UI iterations.

ChatGPT covered copy, translations, and visual assets.

That was enough to keep momentum and avoid getting stuck.

Key Takeaways

Don’t wait. With AI tools, validating ideas is faster than making excuses.
Think in prompts. Clearer prompts = closer to done.
Focus on the essence. Let tools handle surface-level work so you can focus on the core.

Final Thoughts

Aliō is a small project, but it showed me something important: if you have an idea, there’s really nothing stopping you from launching anymore.

If you’re sitting on an idea, try pushing it through Windsurf and ChatGPT. A week from now, you might have a working product instead of just a note in your backlog.