Free checklist
Your vibe coded app works on your laptop. This is the list I run so it also works for everyone else, built from the five reasons in this walkthrough.
One page. No code reading required. Each check is something you can do, or ask the AI to do and show you.
Drop your email and I will unlock it right here, plus I will send you what I am building, what worked, and what broke. No fluff, no course pitch.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.The Pre-Launch Checklist
Checks to run before a vibe coded app goes to real users. adamgarceau.com
1 · Does it run anywhere but your computer?
Look at the link you are testing. If it says localhost, only you can see it.
Open the live link on another device (your phone on cell data, not your wifi) or send it to a friend. If they see it, it is live.
It is on a real host (Cloudflare is free to start) and, if you want one, a domain (about $10 to $20 a year).
2 · Are your keys safe?
API keys live in a .env file, not in the code, not pasted in a chat, not in a screenshot.
Ask the AI to search the code for exposed keys and show you what it found.
If a key ever leaked, rotate it (make a new one, kill the old one).
3 · Did it really work, or did it say it worked?
Ask: "How did you come up with that? Was it a hallucination?"
Give it a rule: never make anything up, work only from the data I give you.
Tell it the exact steps to follow. "Don't mess up" does nothing, steps do.
4 · Who checks the work?
Ask it to show its work and explain it to you like you are five.
Start a second agent with a job title (quality control checker) and have it review what the first one did.
Before real users, have a software engineer look at it if you plan to sell it.
5 · Has the AI lost the thread?
Start a fresh chat before you reach about 250,000 tokens.
Ask Claude to set up short-term and long-term memory so the next session picks up where this one stopped.
6 · Is it too big?
Write the minimum viable version: the least it needs to count as the thing.
Ask the AI which requests to cut or save for later, and listen to it.
Do not run several big Opus terminals at once. You will burn your usage before you finish.
7 · Was security skipped?
Nothing sensitive (Social Security numbers, passwords, personal documents) sits where the app or the AI can reach it.
Set up a recurring security scan. I run mine weekly.
You are responsible for your data, not the AI. If that is more than you want to carry, that is a fair reason not to launch.
8 · Last look, as a stranger
Open it in a private window, signed out, and try the main thing.
Type something messy into every form: blank, very long, odd characters. Note what breaks.
Hand it to one real person and stay quiet while they use it.
The one rule
The AI is an overexcited intern. It wants you to be happy. Your job is to check, not to believe.