Building a Mac app with Claude code
10 months ago
- #Productivity
- #SwiftUI
- #AI Development
- Context is a native macOS app for debugging MCP servers, built using SwiftUI and mostly coded by Claude AI.
- Claude Code is effective at writing code, understanding project context, and iterating on features quickly.
- Swift and SwiftUI support in Claude is competent but struggles with modern Swift Concurrency and sometimes uses legacy APIs.
- UI improvements can be requested simply by asking Claude to 'make it more beautiful' with surprisingly good results.
- Context engineering is crucial due to the 200k token limit, requiring efficient use of the context window.
- Priming the agent with project-specific context and detailed specs significantly improves output quality.
- Extended thinking modes like 'ultrathink' help Claude generate better plans before implementation.
- Setting up feedback loops for building, testing, and debugging is essential for autonomous iteration.
- Claude can assist with non-coding tasks like generating mock data, editing copy, and automating release processes.
- Future IDEs may focus more on agent priming and feedback loops rather than traditional code editing features.
- AI tools like Claude enable shipping polished side projects by handling much of the implementation work.