From Idea to App: Overcoming Challenges in Gemini API Build

From Idea to App: Overcoming Challenges in Gemini API BuildFrom Idea to App: Overcoming Challenges in Gemini API Build

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Lacy Perry

• Feb 18

The Genesis Story: Part 2 🛠️

Out of frustration & curiosity, I asked Gemini Pro if it could build a node-based tool for the Gemini API. Having only just made my first fairly basic vibe-coding project, I thought: “Surely, it can’t.” I was wrong!

But the road from “cool idea” to “working app” was a gauntlet:

• Gemini (Canvas): Great prototyping, but kept erasing my progress and rewriting the app!

• Google AI Studio (Round 1): I hit the same walls as complexity grew.

• Vertex AI Studio: Off to the races! ...until the costs spiked.

• Visual Studio: Lack of coding experience caught up with me.

Nearly ready to quit, I went back to Google AI Studio & I told it to read the entire mess and completely overhaul the architecture for efficiency. That was the breakthrough! Try the demo: https://devpost.com/software/genesis-spzbu2

vibecoding googleaistudio aiworkflow

Anton Radionov

• Sep 17

i’ve spent years designing websites with whatever tools were available

now i’m slowly getting used to the fact that i can also make the tool

for this project i wanted to explore more directions for the brand

collecting references or creating each direction from scratch would already become a project of its own

so i built a small generator and started playing with it

each output gives me something to react to

keep this change that try one more

and then one combination suddenly feels like a direction worth following

it’s still rough and i keep finding small things to fix

but honestly this is the part i’m enjoying most

doing the design and building the tool that helps me explore different visual languages at the same time

Brand Design Design Engineering Research

Aditya Pandey

pro

• 1d

Making the tool instead of just using it is such an underrated superpower for designers. Once you can generate directions to react to, exploration stops feeling precious and starts being fun. This is the good kind of lazy.