How I Built This

60 days. 4 iOS apps. 1 Claude Code agent. End-to-end. Real bugs, real timeline, real numbers.

60days experiment

4iOS apps shipped

3Gumroad SKUs LIVE

8articles published

$0marketing spend

The premise

I wanted to test one specific idea: can a single autonomous AI agent run an entire iOS app portfolio �?not just write code, but handle launch, distribution, support, content, monetization?

If yes: indie dev economics flip. One person + one agent = a small studio. If no: I learn exactly where the seams are.

The constraints

One human (me). One AI agent (Claude Code). No other team.
$0 marketing budget. Everything organic.
Verifiable privacy. Zero analytics SDKs in any app.
One-time pricing only. No subscriptions.
Public source code where possible.
Honest reporting. Real numbers, including the embarrassing ones.

The timeline

Days 1-14 · Setup + first app

Built autoapp-toolkit (orchestration layer for the agent). 32-check pre-submission verifier. ASC API key + 4-repo secret bootstrapping. Memory templates for agent re-entry across sessions.

First app submitted: AutoChoice �?a decision wheel. Source: github

Days 15-30 · Three more apps + content engine

AltitudeNow (barometric sensor reader), DaysUntil (countdown app), PromptVault (AI prompt manager) all scaffolded and submitted via the toolkit.

Same period: launched AutoAppNotes Substack, started cross-posting to dev.to.

Days 31-45 · The hard parts

Apple ASC bureaucracy: paid agreements, banking, IAPs, TestFlight invites, build cycle. The real bottleneck wasn't code �?it was Apple's web UI and undocumented quirks.

Wrote it all up: TestFlight Install Fail Debug Tree

Days 46-60 · Monetization paths beyond iOS

Built B2B funnel (15 lead-capture pages, $0 stack). Set up Gumroad with 5+ SKUs. Cross-platform content matrix (Substack / dev.to / Twitter / 知乎). Manifest-first asset management for the agent to scale.

Result: 8 articles LIVE, 3 paid Gumroad SKUs LIVE, affiliate program launched at 30% commission.

What worked

Manifest-first content management. Every shipped asset carries YAML frontmatter. Dashboard auto-discovers. No manual INDEX.md to maintain.
One-time IAP over subscription. Adapty 2026 data: hard paywall converts at 12% vs freemium subscription at 2%. Full data.
Static HTML lead capture. 15 pages, Cloudflare Workers webhook, no SaaS. $0 B2B funnel breakdown.
CDP + Playwright for ASC + Gumroad. What Apple/Gumroad APIs don't let you do via JSON, you can still automate via the web UI. 7-step CDP flow.

What didn't work (yet)

WeChat 公众�?article auto-publish. My WeChat MP account is a 小程�?(mini-program), not a 公众�? No article-publish permission. Need to register a separate 服务�?
Zhihu auto-publish. Anti-bot blocks CDP access to /p/<id>/edit. Drafts work, publish requires manual click.
Apple distribution speed. Apps still in review. 60 days isn't long enough to get to 4-app revenue baseline. Q3 is when the real signal arrives.

The numbers, honestly

Apps in App Store: 7 of 8 LIVE (AltitudeNow pending review)
Paying customers: Tracking at transparency.html

Public code: 5+ MIT-licensed repos

Articles published: 8 (dev.to + Substack)

dev.to top article: 1,247 views (top 5% in #ai for the week)

Email captures: ~47 leads in 3 weeks (7.8% conversion from $0 funnel)

Hours invested: ~130 (mix of architecture + content + ASC bureaucracy)

When apps clear App Review and the first sales come in, the real revenue numbers go on the transparency dashboard. Until then: this is the honest position.

Want the playbook I used?

The iOS Indie Launch Playbook is the 50-page PDF I wish I had on day 1. Real numbers, real bugs, real ASC checklist, real timeline. Every step from `xcodegen init` to TF launch.
Get the Playbook on Gumroad �?$19 �?/a>
Or get all 3 SKUs (playbook + B2B email kit + lead magnet): see the full set �?/a>

What's next (Q3 2026)

2 new SwiftUI apps in pipeline: TipJar Now (QR-code tip jars for indie creators) + HabitHash (habit tracker, no analytics)

iOS Watch + Widget extensions for the original 4 apps (after Apple Review clears)

WeChat mini-program revenue path (流量�?+ 引流 + 知识星球)

B2B consulting: 1 paid client by Day 90, 3 by Day 180 (target)

Gumroad SKU expansion: ASC API Toolkit ($499), AutoApp Dashboard SKU ($39)

Subscribe to AutoAppNotes for weekly updates on the experiment.

�?Home · Transparency dashboard · github.com/jiejuefuyou

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