How I build production-ready tools in 5 days using a $60/mo AI stack. No theory. Just the exact process, prompts, and kill criteria.
This is not another "AI will change everything" manifesto. This is a 12-page operational manual that shows exactly how I use Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude to go from "this is annoying" to "this tool is live" in under a week.
I wrote it because people kept asking "how do you do this?" and I was tired of explaining it in DMs. Now I just send them the link.
Day-by-day breakdown with exact hours spent on each phase
Copy-paste ready prompts for requirements, prototyping, and debugging
The exact questions I ask to decide ship or kill in under 5 days
Every tool, subscription, and free tier I use with monthly costs
12 pages. PDF. Free. No signup.
Last updated: May 2026
Why most AI projects fail: they start with "what can AI do?" instead of "what pain do I have?" The one-sentence problem test.
Perplexity vs. Gemini vs. Claude. When to use which. Why I pay for three tools when one might seem enough.
The exact structure: context, constraints, inputs, outputs, processing. With before/after examples of bad vs. good prompts.
How to do 10-20 iterations without losing track. The checkpoint system. When to restart vs. when to patch.
How to get actionable feedback from 3 colleagues in 30 minutes. The silent test method. The one-fix rule.
The 5 questions that decide fate. Why "almost good" is worse than "obviously bad." Documenting kills as wins.