Green: Quick Build Checklist#

Even a quick build needs a sentence describing what it does and what "done" looks like. If you cannot describe it, you are not ready to build it.

If your laptop dies, can you get your work back? Save to a cloud tool (Replit, GitHub, Google Drive) — not just your desktop.

"test123" will not reveal problems. Use realistic names, numbers, and edge cases (empty fields, very long text, special characters like accents or apostrophes).

1. Try entering a name with an apostrophe (e.g., "O'Brien") 2. Try entering an empty form — does it handle it? 3. Try entering a very long string (200+ characters) 4. Try entering special characters (accents, emoji, symbols) 5. If any of these cause a crash or blank screen, fix it before shipping

Open your project brief. Walk through each item under "What does done look like?" Does the tool do all of them? Not some — all.

Anyone who sees your code can use your accounts and access your data. This is the most common security mistake in AI-assisted development.

1. Search your code for: sk-, api_key, secret, password, token, DATABASE_URL 2. Search for any long random string that looks like a key 3. If you find any, move them to environment variables (your tool's settings or secrets panel) 4. Not sure how? See When to Escalate

You need a kill switch. "I can delete the deployment" counts. "I can set it to private" counts. Know how to do it before you need to.