How I Built a Real App Without Coding — WordsByEkta🌿
How I Built & Deployed a Real App Without Being a Developer — WordsByEkta🌿
ChatGPT → Lovable → GitHub → Codex → Vercel. An honest step-by-step account from a Chartered Accountant who had never touched GitHub in her life.
ChatGPT Came First — Before Any App Builder
I am a Chartered Accountant by profession, not a software developer. Before I opened Lovable or any other tool, I described my app idea to ChatGPT and asked it to write me a structured, detailed prompt I could use for generation. That one step made a bigger difference than I expected — a properly written prompt gave Lovable much more to work with.
ChatGPT (idea → prompt) → Lovable → GitHub → ChatGPT (continuation prompt) → Codex → GitHub → Vercel
Lovable: Strong First Generation, Then the Limit Hit
I pasted the ChatGPT-written prompt into Lovable and the first generation was impressive — proper UI layout, component structure, a visual system that actually looked like a real product. Then the daily usage limit expired. I was not finished, and I wanted to complete it the same day.
Fast UI Generation
A modern, structured interface from a single detailed prompt — far quicker than building anything manually.
Real Project Structure
A proper React + Vite style project, not just HTML snippets — which matters for everything that comes after.
Great for MVPs
Dashboards, tools, and utility apps work especially well for that first version generation.
GitHub: Skeptical at First, Grateful After
I asked ChatGPT if there was a way to download the Lovable project. It told me there should be a download button. There was not — the only option was to connect to GitHub. Honestly, GitHub had always felt hacker-ish and not meant for people like me. But with no other option, I connected. And it was surprisingly easy.
Here is the part that is easy to miss: once Lovable and GitHub were linked, the GitHub repository itself had an option to download the project as a ZIP file. The download came from GitHub — not from Lovable directly.
- Lovable has no direct download button — you connect to GitHub first
- The ZIP download is available from inside the GitHub repository
- With the files downloaded, I could hand the project to another tool
- Version history was now being tracked automatically
- The same repo would later make Vercel deployment simple
Codex: Continuing the Project, Not Rebuilding It
I went back to ChatGPT, described the remaining changes I needed, and got a continuation prompt. Then I gave both the downloaded project files and that new prompt to Codex — which I had access to through my ChatGPT Plus trial. Codex worked through the remaining logic and completed the app.
Continuation, Not Restart
Because the project files already existed, Codex picked up where Lovable stopped — no rebuilding from scratch.
Feature Completion
It worked through the remaining logic, improved unfinished sections, and brought the project to a completed state.
Key Mindset Shift
Modern app creation is about orchestrating tools together — not writing every line manually from the start.
After Codex finished, I uploaded the completed project as a new repository to GitHub and confirmed the changes.
Vercel: A Live App in About One Minute
Deployment had always sounded complicated. Vercel made it feel like almost nothing once the GitHub repository was connected — it auto-detected the framework, handled the build, and a real public URL appeared within about a minute.
- Connected the GitHub repository to Vercel
- Framework detected automatically — no manual configuration
- Production build handled entirely by Vercel
- A real, public URL appeared in about one minute
- Future redeployments are just as simple
Idea → ChatGPT prompt → Lovable build → GitHub connect + ZIP → ChatGPT continuation → Codex → GitHub upload → Vercel → Live app ✓
The Full Workflow, Step by Step
- 1
ChatGPT — Described the idea, asked it to write a structured Lovable prompt. Used that prompt, not my own vague version.
- 2
Lovable — Pasted the prompt, got the app structure and UI generated. Daily limit expired before finishing.
- 3
GitHub — Connected Lovable to GitHub (the only export option). Downloaded the project ZIP from the GitHub repository.
- 4
ChatGPT again — Described remaining changes, got a continuation prompt to hand to Codex.
- 5
Codex — Gave it the downloaded project files and the continuation prompt. It completed the app.
- 6
GitHub again — Uploaded the finished project as a new repository and confirmed the changes.
- 7
Vercel — Connected the GitHub repo. Auto-detection, auto-build, live public URL in about one minute.
What I actually learned
- Use ChatGPT to write your Lovable prompt before you open Lovable — the first generation will be noticeably better.
- Lovable has no full project download button. It only lets you download individual pages separately — to get the whole project as a ZIP, connect GitHub first, then download from the repo.
- GitHub feels technical until you use it. After one real session it stops being intimidating.
- You need ChatGPT Plus to access Codex — I used the one month free trial. Just remember to cancel before the trial ends or it auto-debits. Handing Codex an existing project rather than starting fresh is what makes the workflow actually work.
- Vercel is genuinely as easy as people say — framework auto-detection handles the hard parts.
- Documenting each step as you go means you can repeat the workflow without relearning everything.
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