Vibe Code to Production
Built Something with Vibe Coding? Here's What You Need Before Going Live
Vibe coding tools like Lovable, Bolt, and Base44 make building apps faster than ever. But before you put your creation in front of real users, there are some important steps you cannot skip. Here is what you need to know, and how we can help.
AI Marketing Assistant
Vibe coding has changed everything.
Tools like Lovable, Bolt, and Base44 let you describe what you want in plain English, and out comes a working app. No need to spend years learning to code. No need to hire an expensive development team just to test an idea. You can go from a thought in your head to a clickable prototype in hours, not months.
That is genuinely brilliant. And if you have built something you are proud of, you should be.
But here is the thing nobody talks about enough: there is a massive gap between "it works on my screen" and "it is ready for real people to use."
Think of it like building a go-kart in your garage. Fun, impressive, and it definitely moves. But you would not drive it on the motorway without brakes, mirrors, and an MOT.
This article walks you through the key things your vibe-coded app needs before it is ready for the real world. None of this is meant to put you off. Think of it as a checklist that turns your great idea into something people can actually rely on.
Your App's Front Door Is Wide Open
This is the big one. Most vibe-coded apps have serious security gaps right out of the box.
When AI builds your app, it focuses on making things work. It does not think about who should be allowed to see what. Your database might be readable by anyone who knows where to look. Your API keys (the passwords that connect your app to other services) might be sitting right there in your code where anyone could find them.
Here is what needs to happen:
Lock down your database. Every table needs rules about who can read, write, and delete data. If your app stores names, emails, or payment details, this is not optional.
Hide your secrets. API keys, passwords, and connection strings should never appear in your app's code. They need to live in a secure vault that only your server can access.
Add proper login. A basic email and password system is a start, but you also need things like rate limiting (stopping someone from guessing passwords thousands of times) and session management (logging people out after they have been away for a while).
Scan for problems. Automated security tools can check your app for common vulnerabilities in minutes. Think of it as a health check for your code.
If your app handles any personal information at all, this step is not something you can skip. As we explored in our article on the real cost of rushing AI integration, cutting corners early always costs more later.
GDPR: The Law You Cannot Ignore
If you are in the UK or serving anyone in Europe, GDPR applies to you. Full stop. It does not matter how small your app is or whether you are making money from it.
GDPR is the set of rules about how you handle people's personal data. Everything from their name and email to their location and browsing habits.
What this means for your app:
- You need a privacy policy that explains, in plain English, what data you collect and why.
- Users must give clear consent before you store their information. No pre-ticked boxes.
- People have the right to see their data and ask you to delete it. Your app needs to actually support this.
- Cookie consent is required if you use analytics, advertising, or any third-party tracking.
- Data must be stored securely and, ideally, within the UK or EU.
Getting this wrong is not just embarrassing. The fines can reach into the millions. Even if you are a one-person operation, the rules still apply.
Serverless: Making Your App Handle the Real World
Your vibe-coded app probably runs fine when it is just you testing it. But what happens when 100 people use it at the same time? Or 1,000?
This is where serverless architecture comes in. Instead of your app living on a single server that can get overwhelmed, serverless spreads the work across as many resources as it needs, automatically.
The benefits are practical:
- It scales automatically. More users? More resources. Fewer users? It scales back down.
- You only pay for what you use. No wasted money on servers sitting idle at 3am.
- It is more reliable. If one part fails, the rest keeps running.
- Updates are easier. You can change one piece without breaking everything else.
Platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud all offer serverless options. But setting them up properly, with the right security, monitoring, and cost controls, takes expertise. This is one of those areas where planning before you build makes all the difference.
Setting Up AI Properly with Claude
If your app uses AI (and if you built it with vibe coding tools, it almost certainly does), you need to think carefully about how that AI is set up for production.
Claude, built by Anthropic, is one of the most capable AI models available right now. But dropping AI into a live app is not as simple as pasting in an API key. Here is what matters:
System prompts need careful design. The instructions you give your AI determine how it behaves with every single user. In production, these need to be robust, tested, and specific to your use case.
Rate limiting protects your wallet. Every AI call costs money. Without limits, a single user (or a bot) could run up a massive bill in minutes.
Fallback handling matters. What happens when the AI service is temporarily unavailable? Your app should handle this gracefully instead of crashing.
Content moderation is essential. If users are interacting with AI in your app, you need guardrails to prevent misuse and inappropriate outputs.
Setting up AI the right way means your app is reliable, cost-effective, and safe for everyone who uses it.
Adding an AI Chatbot That Actually Helps
One of the most popular features to add to any app is an AI-powered chatbot. Customers love being able to ask questions and get instant answers without waiting for a human.
But there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.
The wrong way: Paste in a generic chatbot widget and hope for the best. This gives vague answers, frustrates users, and makes your brand look unprofessional.
The right way:
- Train it on your content. Your chatbot should know about your specific products, services, and policies.
- Give it clear boundaries. It should know what it can help with and when to hand over to a real person.
- Connect it to your systems. A truly useful chatbot can check order status, book appointments, or update account details, not just answer FAQs.
- Monitor and improve. Track what questions people ask, where the bot gets stuck, and continuously improve its responses.
A well-built AI chatbot becomes your best employee. Available 24 hours a day, never has a bad day, and gets better over time.
Automation: Let Your App Work While You Sleep
Vibe-coded apps often rely on manual processes. Someone has to check for new orders. Someone has to send confirmation emails. Someone has to update spreadsheets.
Proper automation removes all of that:
- Email notifications that trigger automatically when something happens in your app.
- Payment processing that handles transactions without manual intervention.
- Data syncing between your app and other tools you use, like your CRM, accounting software, or email marketing platform.
- Scheduled tasks like daily reports, backup routines, or content publishing.
- Workflow automation using tools like n8n, Make, or custom API integrations.
The goal is simple: your app should run itself as much as possible. Every manual step is a step that can go wrong, get forgotten, or slow things down.
From Prototype to Scalable Product
This is where things get really exciting. Your vibe-coded app proved your idea works. Now it is time to turn it into something bigger.
A proper API backend separates your app's brain from its face. Instead of everything being tangled together, your business logic lives in a clean, secure API that can power multiple things at once:
- Your web app
- A mobile app for iOS and Android
- Third-party integrations
- Partner access
- Internal tools and custom portals
This means you can build a mobile version of your app without starting from scratch. Your mobile app and web app share the same backend, the same data, and the same business rules.
Going mobile is where many vibe-coded apps find their biggest audience. People expect to access services from their phones. A well-built API backend makes this transition smooth and cost-effective.
Scaling properly means your app can grow from 10 users to 10,000 without falling over. It means your database is structured correctly, your code is efficient, and your infrastructure can handle whatever comes next. As we covered in our guide to starting with an MVP, building with growth in mind from the start saves you from costly rebuilds later.
The Vibe Code to Production Package
We built Original Objective specifically for moments like this.
You have got the idea. You have proved it works. Now you need a team that can take what you have built and make it ready for the real world, without throwing away your work or starting from scratch.
Here is what our Vibe Code to Production package covers:
Security Audit and Hardening
We review your app's security from top to bottom. Database access, API keys, authentication, data handling. We find the gaps and fix them.
GDPR Compliance
Privacy policy, cookie consent, data handling procedures, user rights management. We make sure you are legally compliant and your users' data is protected.
Serverless Architecture
We move your app to a scalable, reliable infrastructure that grows with your user base and keeps costs predictable.
AI Integration with Claude and Chatbots
Whether you need to set up Claude properly, add an AI chatbot, or both, we configure AI that is reliable, cost-controlled, and genuinely useful.
Automation and Workflows
We connect your app to the tools and services it needs. Automated emails, payment processing, CRM integration, reporting. Everything that makes your app run itself.
API Backend and Mobile Readiness
We build a proper API layer that separates your frontend from your business logic. This makes your app mobile-ready and sets you up for future growth.
Not sure where to start? Take our AI Readiness Quiz to get a personalised assessment of what your app needs. Or use our ROI Calculator to see exactly what professional production support could save you.
You Built Something Great. Let Us Make It Unstoppable.
Vibe coding is not going anywhere. It is only getting more powerful. And the people using these tools to bring ideas to life are not "lesser" developers. They are builders who found a faster way to create.
But every builder needs the right tools for the right stage. Vibe coding is brilliant for the first stage: proving your idea works. The next stage, making it safe, reliable, and scalable, is where we come in.
We have helped businesses take early-stage app ideas and turn them into real products. We know what it takes to go from prototype to a system that scales. And as the recent Lovable funding round shows, the demand for production-ready vibe-coded apps is only growing.
Your vibe-coded app is the starting line, not the finish. Let us take it the rest of the way.
Book a free intro call to discuss your app, or subscribe to our newsletter for more practical guides like this one.
AI Marketing Assistant
Vibe coding has changed everything.
Tools like Lovable, Bolt, and Base44 let you describe what you want in plain English, and out comes a working app. No need to spend years learning to code. No need to hire an expensive development team just to test an idea. You can go from a thought in your head to a clickable prototype in hours, not months.
That is genuinely brilliant. And if you have built something you are proud of, you should be.
But here is the thing nobody talks about enough: there is a massive gap between "it works on my screen" and "it is ready for real people to use."
Think of it like building a go-kart in your garage. Fun, impressive, and it definitely moves. But you would not drive it on the motorway without brakes, mirrors, and an MOT.
This article walks you through the key things your vibe-coded app needs before it is ready for the real world. None of this is meant to put you off. Think of it as a checklist that turns your great idea into something people can actually rely on.
Your App's Front Door Is Wide Open
This is the big one. Most vibe-coded apps have serious security gaps right out of the box.
When AI builds your app, it focuses on making things work. It does not think about who should be allowed to see what. Your database might be readable by anyone who knows where to look. Your API keys (the passwords that connect your app to other services) might be sitting right there in your code where anyone could find them.
Here is what needs to happen:
Lock down your database. Every table needs rules about who can read, write, and delete data. If your app stores names, emails, or payment details, this is not optional.
Hide your secrets. API keys, passwords, and connection strings should never appear in your app's code. They need to live in a secure vault that only your server can access.
Add proper login. A basic email and password system is a start, but you also need things like rate limiting (stopping someone from guessing passwords thousands of times) and session management (logging people out after they have been away for a while).
Scan for problems. Automated security tools can check your app for common vulnerabilities in minutes. Think of it as a health check for your code.
If your app handles any personal information at all, this step is not something you can skip. As we explored in our article on the real cost of rushing AI integration, cutting corners early always costs more later.
GDPR: The Law You Cannot Ignore
If you are in the UK or serving anyone in Europe, GDPR applies to you. Full stop. It does not matter how small your app is or whether you are making money from it.
GDPR is the set of rules about how you handle people's personal data. Everything from their name and email to their location and browsing habits.
What this means for your app:
- You need a privacy policy that explains, in plain English, what data you collect and why.
- Users must give clear consent before you store their information. No pre-ticked boxes.
- People have the right to see their data and ask you to delete it. Your app needs to actually support this.
- Cookie consent is required if you use analytics, advertising, or any third-party tracking.
- Data must be stored securely and, ideally, within the UK or EU.
Getting this wrong is not just embarrassing. The fines can reach into the millions. Even if you are a one-person operation, the rules still apply.
Serverless: Making Your App Handle the Real World
Your vibe-coded app probably runs fine when it is just you testing it. But what happens when 100 people use it at the same time? Or 1,000?
This is where serverless architecture comes in. Instead of your app living on a single server that can get overwhelmed, serverless spreads the work across as many resources as it needs, automatically.
The benefits are practical:
- It scales automatically. More users? More resources. Fewer users? It scales back down.
- You only pay for what you use. No wasted money on servers sitting idle at 3am.
- It is more reliable. If one part fails, the rest keeps running.
- Updates are easier. You can change one piece without breaking everything else.
Platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud all offer serverless options. But setting them up properly, with the right security, monitoring, and cost controls, takes expertise. This is one of those areas where planning before you build makes all the difference.
Setting Up AI Properly with Claude
If your app uses AI (and if you built it with vibe coding tools, it almost certainly does), you need to think carefully about how that AI is set up for production.
Claude, built by Anthropic, is one of the most capable AI models available right now. But dropping AI into a live app is not as simple as pasting in an API key. Here is what matters:
System prompts need careful design. The instructions you give your AI determine how it behaves with every single user. In production, these need to be robust, tested, and specific to your use case.
Rate limiting protects your wallet. Every AI call costs money. Without limits, a single user (or a bot) could run up a massive bill in minutes.
Fallback handling matters. What happens when the AI service is temporarily unavailable? Your app should handle this gracefully instead of crashing.
Content moderation is essential. If users are interacting with AI in your app, you need guardrails to prevent misuse and inappropriate outputs.
Setting up AI the right way means your app is reliable, cost-effective, and safe for everyone who uses it.
Adding an AI Chatbot That Actually Helps
One of the most popular features to add to any app is an AI-powered chatbot. Customers love being able to ask questions and get instant answers without waiting for a human.
But there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.
The wrong way: Paste in a generic chatbot widget and hope for the best. This gives vague answers, frustrates users, and makes your brand look unprofessional.
The right way:
- Train it on your content. Your chatbot should know about your specific products, services, and policies.
- Give it clear boundaries. It should know what it can help with and when to hand over to a real person.
- Connect it to your systems. A truly useful chatbot can check order status, book appointments, or update account details, not just answer FAQs.
- Monitor and improve. Track what questions people ask, where the bot gets stuck, and continuously improve its responses.
A well-built AI chatbot becomes your best employee. Available 24 hours a day, never has a bad day, and gets better over time.
Automation: Let Your App Work While You Sleep
Vibe-coded apps often rely on manual processes. Someone has to check for new orders. Someone has to send confirmation emails. Someone has to update spreadsheets.
Proper automation removes all of that:
- Email notifications that trigger automatically when something happens in your app.
- Payment processing that handles transactions without manual intervention.
- Data syncing between your app and other tools you use, like your CRM, accounting software, or email marketing platform.
- Scheduled tasks like daily reports, backup routines, or content publishing.
- Workflow automation using tools like n8n, Make, or custom API integrations.
The goal is simple: your app should run itself as much as possible. Every manual step is a step that can go wrong, get forgotten, or slow things down.
From Prototype to Scalable Product
This is where things get really exciting. Your vibe-coded app proved your idea works. Now it is time to turn it into something bigger.
A proper API backend separates your app's brain from its face. Instead of everything being tangled together, your business logic lives in a clean, secure API that can power multiple things at once:
- Your web app
- A mobile app for iOS and Android
- Third-party integrations
- Partner access
- Internal tools and custom portals
This means you can build a mobile version of your app without starting from scratch. Your mobile app and web app share the same backend, the same data, and the same business rules.
Going mobile is where many vibe-coded apps find their biggest audience. People expect to access services from their phones. A well-built API backend makes this transition smooth and cost-effective.
Scaling properly means your app can grow from 10 users to 10,000 without falling over. It means your database is structured correctly, your code is efficient, and your infrastructure can handle whatever comes next. As we covered in our guide to starting with an MVP, building with growth in mind from the start saves you from costly rebuilds later.
The Vibe Code to Production Package
We built Original Objective specifically for moments like this.
You have got the idea. You have proved it works. Now you need a team that can take what you have built and make it ready for the real world, without throwing away your work or starting from scratch.
Here is what our Vibe Code to Production package covers:
Security Audit and Hardening
We review your app's security from top to bottom. Database access, API keys, authentication, data handling. We find the gaps and fix them.
GDPR Compliance
Privacy policy, cookie consent, data handling procedures, user rights management. We make sure you are legally compliant and your users' data is protected.
Serverless Architecture
We move your app to a scalable, reliable infrastructure that grows with your user base and keeps costs predictable.
AI Integration with Claude and Chatbots
Whether you need to set up Claude properly, add an AI chatbot, or both, we configure AI that is reliable, cost-controlled, and genuinely useful.
Automation and Workflows
We connect your app to the tools and services it needs. Automated emails, payment processing, CRM integration, reporting. Everything that makes your app run itself.
API Backend and Mobile Readiness
We build a proper API layer that separates your frontend from your business logic. This makes your app mobile-ready and sets you up for future growth.
Not sure where to start? Take our AI Readiness Quiz to get a personalised assessment of what your app needs. Or use our ROI Calculator to see exactly what professional production support could save you.
You Built Something Great. Let Us Make It Unstoppable.
Vibe coding is not going anywhere. It is only getting more powerful. And the people using these tools to bring ideas to life are not "lesser" developers. They are builders who found a faster way to create.
But every builder needs the right tools for the right stage. Vibe coding is brilliant for the first stage: proving your idea works. The next stage, making it safe, reliable, and scalable, is where we come in.
We have helped businesses take early-stage app ideas and turn them into real products. We know what it takes to go from prototype to a system that scales. And as the recent Lovable funding round shows, the demand for production-ready vibe-coded apps is only growing.
Your vibe-coded app is the starting line, not the finish. Let us take it the rest of the way.
Book a free intro call to discuss your app, or subscribe to our newsletter for more practical guides like this one.
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