From Prompt to Production

Build a real app with AI, end to end: Blazor Server, PostgreSQL and SignalR, developed with Claude across fourteen parts — every prompt shown, every AI mistake kept and fixed, every dollar counted. The companion repo's commit messages ARE the prompts.

14 parts · ~105 min of reading, in order, nothing assumed.

Start with Part 1

📦 ClinicLive repo — commit messages ARE the prompts

From Prompt to Production · Part 1

AI-Assisted Development in 2026: Tools, Models and Honest Expectations

Chat vs agentic tools, which Claude model to use when (with real cost math), what AI development is genuinely good at — and the tour of ClinicLive, the app this series builds. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 2

Set Up Claude Code for .NET Like You Mean It

Install Claude Code, write a CLAUDE.md that pays rent, set permission rails you can trust, and make your first AI-authored change — reviewed, understood, committed. Aug 9, 2026 7 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 3

From Conversation to Spec: Make the AI Interview You

Describe the app in plain English, let the AI ask the clarifying questions, and get a one-page spec with user stories and non-goals — before any code exists. Aug 9, 2026 6 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 4

Spec to Schema: Designing PostgreSQL Tables with AI

Turn the spec into DDL with AI — and catch its mistakes with a schema review: the missing FK index, the timestamp without a timezone, and the partial unique index it never suggests. Aug 9, 2026 7 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 5

Scaffold to Skeleton: Blazor Server, EF Core and Npgsql

The template, the SQLite→PostgreSQL swap, the first migration and a seeder — plus the rule that makes AI scaffolding safe: never ship a file you haven't read. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 6

CRUD with an AI Pair: The Booking Flow

Free slots, the booking form, confirmation codes and the double-booking race — built prompt by prompt, with the review-refine loop that keeps AI code honest. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 7

Going Real-Time: SignalR and the Live Queue Board

Your first hub, groups, automatic reconnect — and a waiting-room screen that updates itself the second a patient checks in at the kiosk. Notify, don't ship state. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 8

Chat, Presence and the 401 That Explains Blazor Server

Staff chat with who's-online and typing indicators — and the AI design that fails first: why an [Authorize] hub 401s from a server-side component, and what the circuit really is. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 9

Testing AI-Written Code Without Fooling Yourself

xUnit plus Testcontainers against a real PostgreSQL — and the tautological-test trap: when the AI writes tests by reading its own code, they can only ever agree with it. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 10

Debugging with AI: Two Real Bugs, Start to Finish

A queue that calls the wrong patient and a clinic living on server time — two real bugs, diagnosed by describing symptoms, fixed by rewriting tests from the spec. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 11

The Hardening Pass: AI as a Hostile Reviewer

Ask the AI to attack its own app: the open self-registration it shipped, the missing role checks, the CHECK constraint the database deserved, and the index EXPLAIN demanded. Aug 9, 2026 7 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 12

Ship It: A VPS, nginx, systemd — and the Headers SignalR Needs

Publish to a Linux VPS with an AI-written runbook, wire up GitHub Actions CI, and learn the three nginx lines that separate 'works locally' from 'works in production'. Aug 9, 2026 7 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 13

Power Moves: Agents, Skills, MCP — and Knowing When to Say No

Parallel agents, custom commands, connecting Claude to your database with MCP, keeping costs sane — and the honest list of jobs where AI is still the wrong tool. Aug 9, 2026 8 min read

From Prompt to Production · Part 14

The Retro: What ClinicLive Really Cost, and What the AI Got Wrong

The full bill in dollars and hours, the complete mistake log from fourteen parts, the skills worth keeping sharp — and how to talk about AI-assisted work in interviews. Aug 9, 2026 7 min read