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My iOS and macOS app development workflow has changed since my last GPT-5.2 Workflow video. GPT-5.4 lets me iterate on bug fixes, features, and ideas much faster than before. Watch: How I Build Apps with Codex and GPT-5.4 If you want to build apps with agents, use my app-creator skill. It can scaffold a new Xcode project and teach your agent how to create a Makefile for an existing Xcode project. 2 Tactics You Can Steal#1 Use a Learnings.md File with Your AgentSelf-improvement is one of the holy grails for agents. Give them a place to capture lessons so they can avoid repeated mistakes. Ask your agent: Please create a
Learnings.md file. Add any insights from this session that would help you work with tools, or prevent bad tool calls or buggy code. Please append knowledge as you work so we can be proactive. Create Markdown front matter and a table of contents with guidance on how future agents can update it.
Add an
Agents.md onboarding rule to read and update Learnings.md after any problem or bug that requires extra effort to solve.Periodically, ask the agent to review the conversation and append new learnings. Over time, ask it to reorganize the file for future agents. #2 Just Talk to ItGPT-5.4 and Codex 5.3 work well with a full plan, but they also handle small fixes with very little detail. I prefer a hands-on workflow: request a small change, test it, and steer from there. Skip the big plan. Take a screenshot, draw a sketch, or ask for one small task. You don’t need to be comprehensive. Let Codex plan just-in-time. I want to do XYZ. Please use the TODOs to make a plan and implement the feature. When the request is small, you can test the result in minutes and change direction before you fully know what you want. My Workflow:
This loop is much faster than spending 30 to 60 minutes planning and re-planning a feature. Play testing is more fun than creating a master document. Reserve “Plan mode” for initial app concepts or larger features it can build while you sleep. Pro TipEnable the new Fast mode with the latest Codex CLI (and Codex app). Type It runs about 1.5x faster (and uses 2x tokens). 5 Resources and Links
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Quick QuestionWhat model do you prefer for coding? GPT-5.4 or GPT-5.3-Codex? Talk soon, Paul Solt P.S. Next week, we’ll talk about how to improve your documentation. |
Join 6,727+ iOS/macOS developers using Codex and Claude to build and ship apps. Expect practical tutorials, repeatable workflows, and hard-earned lessons from 7 shipped apps and time at Apple, Microsoft, and GoPro.
Hey Reader,You can now use Super Easy Timer on iPhone. I had my agents use the Mac app as a reference and extracted a shared library of code using the Swift Package Manager (SPM). This is the brains of my timer app, and it's shared across iOS and macOS. The MVP worked last week, but it wasn't reliable until I added AlarmKit. That allows timers to persist even if the app is force-quit or the iPhone is locked (just like Apple's system alarms). That was my biggest blocker, and now that it's in,...
Hey Reader,My Mac app made $7,900+ over 8 years as a paid app. It made $0 in the three months I gave it away for free. Learn why I made it free, what happened, and what I'm charging next. Read the entire article here. I overhauled the UI this year, localized the App Store Page to 46 languages, and then Apple began featuring it on the front page. Super Easy Timer on the front page (Best New Apps and Updates) Did you know? You can nominate your app to Apple for feature consideration. The Free...
Hey Reader, Apple featured Super Easy Timer on the front page of the Mac App Store. 3,158 downloads. $0 revenue. That's on purpose. What got me here? Fixing all the papercuts in the original timer app and creating a better onboarding experience caught Apple's attention. That made them feature my app on the front Discover page and on the Work tab in the Mac App Store. Over the past two months, I made huge improvements to the UI and unlocked the ability to use a timer on top of every single...