Architecture Notes
1 · Dev Platform

AI-Driven Development with Only an iPhone — the Whole Dev Platform

2026.07.02~3 min

00Overview

Tools

  • iPhoneThe main dev device. Everything happens herealready owned
  • iPadStore screenshots (optional)already owned
  • PC (any)One-time browser step (1.1.2)already owned
  • Claude ProAI development (1.1.1)$20/mo
  • Apple Developer ProgramStore submission (1.1.2)$99/yr
  • GitHubSource control + CI/CDFree
  • EASbuild / submit / delivery (1.1.1, 1.1.2)Free
  • FlowScreenshot generationFree

01Opening

I want to build something of my own. But between a full-time job with overtime, housework, and a small child, there is no moment in the day to open a PC. No solid block of desk time, either — if I'm honest, none at all. What I have are the gaps: bedtime settling, the commute, lunch breaks. And to top it off, my Mac fell out of support.

A person has two hands. You can hold two things at once — no more. Work, and the house and kids, already fill them.

In the age where AI writes the code, the shape of development has changed. Ask, check the result, and decide. For that, the one device in your hand during those gaps is enough.

Solo development is exactly where AI-driven, phone-only development belongs.

02Turn

Shift

Why does a phone alone work? Because the three jobs a PC used to hold — writing code (the IDE), building, and delivering — can now all live in the cloud. AI writes code inside the cloud, a Mac inside the cloud does the building, and delivery is cloud-side too. What remains in your hand is asking, checking, and deciding. Then the iPhone in your hand is enough.

The honest hardware picture is in the Tools list above. The iPad is used only for tablet screenshots when a store listing supports tablets (skip tablet support and you can skip the iPad). A PC is used exactly once, for a browser step — it does not need to be a Mac, and specs don't matter (with some effort, maybe even a phone).

Cost

Monthly fixed cost is effectively just Claude Pro's $20, plus the Apple Developer Program's $99 once a year. GitHub, EAS, and Flow all fit inside their free tiers. What those free tiers contain — and where they pinch — is covered in the individual articles.

One more big constraint: I keep credit-card registration off the table. You hear the war stories — a cloud or AI key left loose, an account hijacked, a bill for millions of yen. I don't want to register a card for usage-based billing even where it's free; the fear of a runaway charge isn't worth it, so as a rule I don't. Claude is billed through Apple, a flat subscription with no surprise charges. I'd have liked to use Google Cloud too, but you can't create an account without a card, and not wanting an accident, I left it. (Had prepay without a card been possible, I'd have used it.)

03Finale

So from here, the story is told from one angle: "an iPhone as the entry point, with the cloud chained in series behind it." First, why this environment — the requirements I refused to compromise on. Then how to implement. Then how to reach the App Store.