# What I Wish I Knew Before Building My First Farcaster Mini App

By [Marina Iakovleva](https://paragraph.com/@ramina13) · 2025-05-19

#base, #farcaster, #miniapp, #ai, #chatgpt, #devs

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I’m not a developer.  
But I _am_ someone with big ideas, relentless curiosity and a love for building things from scratch.

When I decided to create a Farcaster Mini App, I didn’t have a co-founder or a team. What I had was ChatGPT.  
And it became my full-time coding partner.  
That came with some serious upsides and a handful of facepalm-worthy downsides I really wish I’d known about earlier.

But before we get into that, let me say this:  
Even if you’re starting from absolute zero, Base makes sure you’re never truly lost.

There’s a ton of well-structured information already out there, including:

1.  Base documentation (clear and friendly).
    
2.  Recordings of workshops and live sessions.
    
3.  Step-by-step breakdowns of the whole ecosystem (I can practically say that it's written like they knew you might be doing this at 2am in your hoodie, with zero sleep.)
    

And don’t underestimate the power of asking questions.  
In 90% of cases, someone _will_ reply.  
In 50%, it’ll be a helpful, thoughtful response.  
And in 10% you’ll get pure gold: deep dives, links, support.  
**_That’s community. And that’s priceless._**

  

Now, let’s talk real talk.
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The good, the bad and what you might want to know before you go full solo-mode with an AI co-founder.

### 🚀 The Pros:

**1\. Yes, it’s possible to build an app from scratch in 2.5 weeks.**  
From idea to MVP. But buckle up, there will be days when you forget to eat, when 3 hours of sleep feels generous, and when you check components and commit new parts of code even in your dreams.

**2\. You _can_ do it solo with AI.**  
But you’ll need a few key things:  
→ A clear idea of what you want to build.  
→ The ability to break down your journey into checkpoints.  
→ A basic understanding of how to prompt and communicate with your AI partner like you’re running a real team meeting.

**3\. Everything you’ve ever learned will come in handy.**  
I leaned on skills I didn’t expect:  
Negotiation.  
Marketing.  
The ability to zoom in like a builder and zoom out like a client.  
Helicopter view thinking.  
Knowing how to write good prompts saved me more than once.  
And honestly, the emotional intelligence to stay patient when things broke down was probably the biggest superpower.

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### 😬 The Cons (aka Things That Almost Drove Me Nuts):

**1\. GPT will slow down. A lot.**  
The more code you feed it, the messier it gets. Eventually, it’ll start confusing files, hallucinating edits, or rewriting things you didn’t ask it to touch.  
And when you’re sleep-deprived and behind schedule, that’s a recipe for a mini panic.  
(yes, _I was crying siting in the hotel's bed_ after the update that lead to **_382 problems_** in code)

**2\. I didn’t keep track of changes.**  
No logs. No checkpoints. No backups.  
So when we broke something (and we _did_), it was painful to go back.  
Don’t be me, please, track your progress. Even just a Notion doc or daily log helps.

**3\. I didn’t switch chats often enough.**  
After 6 days of working non-stop in one GPT chat, we got stuck. Hard.  
Now I know: every 3 days, start a fresh thread and paste in all the critical context.  
It’s annoying, but it works.  

**4\. I worked in ONE chat for everything.**  
UX/UI, backend, frontend, creative ideas, visual assets, all in one messy stream.  
Big mistake.  
Later I split it:  
→ One for code  
→ One for UX  
→ One for prompts/visuals  
→ One for thinking out loud  
Wish I’d done that from day one.

**5\. I didn’t double-check GPT’s work.**  
He’s good, but not flawless.  
Even if you don’t know how to code, just search for key terms in the docs and compare. Ask follow-up questions. GPT will _admit_ mistakes if you catch them. You don’t have to know everything, still you need to be curious and persistent.

### \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

###   
🧠 The Takeaways (aka Stuff You’ll Be Glad You Knew):

1.  **Estimate your time. Then add 50%.** You’ll need it. Trust me.
    
2.  **Done > perfect.** A working MVP is better than a perfect idea sitting in your drafts.
    
3.  **Ask questions.** Everyone starts somewhere. _Cool devs aren’t scary._ They were beginners too.
    
4.  **No team? No experience? No budget? Still possible.** Just add +20% more time. And patience.
    
5.  **Use _all_ the resources.** Even if they seem repetitive. Sometimes one sentence in a different doc will solve what five threads couldn’t.
    
6.  **Even when you outsource - stay engaged.** Whether it’s AI or another person, you still need to understand the flow.
    
7.  **Learn from others, but experiment.** Your weird idea might be the one that wins.
    
8.  **Take care of yourself.** Sleep is part of shipping. Mental clarity is a feature. Water is… well, water is just basic survival.
    
9.  **Believe in yourself.** If you’re building something you’re already doing something brave. That’s rare. That’s powerful.
    

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
Hope all these will motivate you to move forward your dream. Or at least you have 5 good minutes reading.  
  
And while I'm finishing with the project you can already press on a heart and support me a little by the link with my project submission  
[https://devfolio.co/projects/habitglow-gamified-habit-tracker-mini-app-083c](https://devfolio.co/projects/habitglow-gamified-habit-tracker-mini-app-083c)  
  
**_See you on BASE._** 🚀

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*Originally published on [Marina Iakovleva](https://paragraph.com/@ramina13/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-my-first-farcaster-mini-app)*
