Illustrative example — this shows how a job like this typically runs, not a specific client engagement. Figures are representative, not measured outcomes.
Turning a Weekend Lovable Build Into an App With a Real Deploy Pipeline
How a solo founder's vibe-coded prototype went from a laptop preview to an app that updates itself in both app stores.
Where they started
The app worked. Habit streaks, reminders, the whole thing ran cleanly in the browser preview Lovable generates. But 'live' meant a link that only worked while the founder's laptop was on, and getting it onto a phone as a real app meant manually opening Xcode and Android Studio, building, signing and uploading by hand — a process that ate most of a Saturday every time something changed.
There was no cloud hosting, no separation between a version being tested and the one real users would see, and no way to ship a bug fix without repeating the full manual build-and-upload process on both platforms. The founder wanted to spend weekends improving the app, not re-learning App Store Connect every release.
What a working prototype was still missing
From the first read-throughClosing the lid took the preview offline. There was no server actually running the app anywhere.
Shipping an update meant a full manual build and upload in both Xcode and Android Studio — no shortcuts, no automation.
Apple's signing certificate and a live API key were committed straight into the project's git history.
The actual app code was clean and sensibly structured — this needed proper infrastructure around it, not a rewrite.
How we built the pipeline
Done in 9 business daysReal hosting, split into test and live
Moved the backend onto proper cloud hosting with separate staging and production environments, so changes could be tried safely before anyone saw them.
Wrapping it as a real app
Packaged the web app for iOS and Android, set up proper code signing with certificates stored securely instead of in the repository, and got it accepted into both app stores.
A pipeline that ships on its own
Built an automated pipeline so pushing to the main branch builds, tests and submits the update to TestFlight and the Play Console without anyone touching Xcode.
Keys rotated, handed back documented
Rotated every exposed key and certificate, removed them from git history for good, and handed over a plain-English guide to shipping the next update.
What was handed over
- Cloud hosting with separate staging and production environments
- The app packaged and approved for both the Apple App Store and Google Play
- An automated pipeline that ships an update on every push to main
- Every exposed key and certificate rotated, with a plain-English handover guide
What we built it with
We pick tools with low ongoing licence costs, solid privacy, and no lock-in — so you can take the work elsewhere if you ever want to.