Guide · Updated October 2026 · Last reviewed
Getting a first version out of a vibe coding tool is easy. Getting it to the point where strangers can sign up, pay and trust it with their data takes more work. This guide walks through that one step at a time and names the feature or tool that handles each step, based on each tool's own docs. Haven't picked a builder yet? Start with our vibe coding tools guide, then come back.
| Step | Tools and features | Our take: why this step matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Plan before you prompt | Lovable Plan mode, Kiro specs, Replit Plan mode | A written plan wastes fewer credits than prompting over and over. |
| 2. Build the first version | Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit Agent | Aim for one working flow, not every feature. |
| 3. Add data and logins | Lovable Cloud, Supabase Auth, Supabase RLS | Database permissions are the step people skip. |
| 4. Get your code into GitHub | Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit import | A backup, a history and a way out of the builder. |
| 5. Keep building with a coding agent | AGENTS.md, plus an agent from our coding agents guide | For custom logic the builder struggles with. |
| 6. Test like a user | Playwright MCP, Chrome DevTools MCP, Lovable security scans | Let an agent click through sign-up, checkout and errors. |
| 7. Take payments | Stripe sandboxes and test cards | Test declines and refunds before real money moves. |
| 8. Ship | Builder hosting, Vercel, Netlify | Every change gets a preview URL first. |
Tools change every week. Hotfix Daily tells you what changed, why it matters and links the source. Free, weekdays, about 3 minutes.
Our take: write down the users, the one main flow, and how you'll know it works. Then hand that to the tool's planning mode.
Lovable's project chat has Chat, Plan and Build modes. In Plan mode, Lovable investigates and writes a plan you can edit and approve, and Lovable says Plan mode never modifies your code. It often asks clarifying questions first, and each Plan mode message costs one credit plus the cost of any subagent research.
Our take: Any change that touches several screens or your data model.
Kiro turns an idea into three files: requirements.md (user stories and acceptance criteria), design.md (technical architecture and sequence diagrams) and tasks.md (an implementation plan split into discrete tasks).
Our take: Writing a spec that any builder or agent can follow, even if you build somewhere else.
Replit's pricing page lists Plan mode in its Core plan ($20 a month, or $18 billed annually).
Our take: Replit users: plan first, then let Agent build.
Pick one builder (our vibe coding tools guide compares them) and build the smallest version of your main flow. Our take: ask for one screen or one flow per prompt. Big, vague prompts burn through credits and are harder to undo.
Lovable hosts your app and includes a built-in backend with a database, authentication, storage, edge functions and AI.
Bolt's free plan includes 1M tokens a month (with a 300K daily limit), website hosting and unlimited databases. Pro is $18 a month billed annually and adds your own domain with no Bolt branding.
v0's free plan deploys apps to Vercel and syncs with GitHub, with a 7-message-a-day limit.
In Replit's words, Agent "sets up your project, creates applications, checks its work, and fixes problems along the way."
Lovable's built-in backend gives you a database, real-time updates, user authentication, storage, edge functions, secrets and logs, with no separate setup. Lovable says it is built on Supabase's open-source foundation. You can also connect an external backend you set up yourself.
Our take: Non-developers who want logins and data without leaving the builder.
Supabase Auth supports password, magic link, one-time password (OTP), social login and single sign-on (SSO).
Our take: Any builder or coding agent that uses Supabase as the backend.
Supabase's docs put it plainly: a table in an exposed schema without RLS is readable and writable by any role with a grant on it, so enable RLS on every table in an exposed schema. They also warn that a policy reading to anon using ( true ) gives every unauthenticated visitor read access, so use it only for data that is meant to be public.
Our take: Before launch, ask your builder or agent to list every table and its RLS policies, and read that list yourself.
Our take: do this on day one, not when something breaks.
Lovable can export your project and keep it in two-way sync with github.com, GitHub Enterprise Cloud or GitHub Enterprise Server, for backup, collaboration and deployment. On paid plans you can also download the codebase directly.
Connecting GitHub backs up your Bolt project with a full history of changes and syncs commits automatically. Each branch has its own memory. Because the code lives in GitHub, you can publish with Bolt hosting, the Netlify integration or another service.
A v0 chat connected to GitHub starts from the base branch you pick. When v0 has a change, it creates a working branch from that base and pushes there, and you ship through pull requests and CI.
Replit can import a GitHub repository, including projects exported from Lovable, Bolt or Base44, so GitHub sync also lets you change builders without starting over.
When you need custom backend logic, keep hitting the builder's limits, or spend more on credits than a coding agent costs, open the GitHub repo in a coding agent. Our AI coding agents guide explains the options, and which AI coding agent to use compares prices.
An open format that its site calls "a README for agents": one place for the setup, build, test and code style commands that coding agents read. Add it to the repo before the agent's first task.
Our take: If the builder still syncs with the repo, have the agent work on a branch so the builder and the agent don't overwrite each other.
How to add these servers to your agent: see how to add MCP servers.
An MCP server that lets an agent drive a browser through Playwright using structured accessibility snapshots instead of screenshots. Microsoft notes that coding agents increasingly favor its Playwright CLI with skills because it uses fewer tokens, and keeps MCP for long-running, stateful browser sessions.
Our take: Having an agent click through sign-up, login, password reset and checkout on a preview URL.
Gives coding agents control of a live Chrome browser for debugging: analyze network requests, check console messages, record performance traces and take screenshots.
Our take: Finding why a page is slow or why a request fails.
Lovable has two built-in scans. The Quick scan runs automatically every time you publish and checks database access rules, dependencies and more. The Deep scan also reviews your application code and runs on demand. Lovable can auto-fix eligible findings, and says the scans do not replace a thorough security review.
In a Stripe sandbox, test card numbers simulate successful payments, declines, fraud, disputes, refunds and 3D Secure authentication, and no real money moves. You reach your sandboxes from the account picker in the Dashboard.
Our take: Test at least one decline and one refund before you switch to live keys, and keep the secret key in server-side secrets, never in front-end code.
Our take: check every change on a preview URL before it goes to production. It's the cheapest safety net in this workflow.
v0 deploys to Vercel. Working branches get preview deployments for review, and publishing updates production.
Pushes get preview deployments, the production branch deploys to production, and Vercel offers instant rollback.
Deploy from Git, the CLI, drag and drop, or AI agents, with Deploy Previews for review.
Why: Supabase on Row Level Security
The steps for taking an app you built by describing it to an AI all the way to launch: plan, build, add data and logins, back up to GitHub, test, take payments and deploy. Vibe coding is fast at step 2. This workflow covers the other steps.
Yes, if you review it like any other code. Supabase says to enable RLS on every table in an exposed schema, Stripe sandboxes let you test payments without real money, and preview deployments let you check each change before it goes live.
All three have GitHub integrations. Lovable has two-way sync, Bolt syncs commits automatically, and v0 pushes to a working branch that you merge through pull requests. Lovable's paid plans can also download the codebase.
Our take: when you need custom backend logic, keep hitting the builder's limits, or spend more on credits than a coding agent subscription. Sync to GitHub first so you don't start over.
Not for steps 1 to 4, or for step 8 on builder hosting. For steps 5 and 6 it helps to read diffs and test results, or to have someone who can.
How we write these: each tool description is based on the tool's own site or docs (linked as Source) and checked on the date above. "Our take" lines are our opinion. Something out of date? Email hello@hotfixdaily.com. No tool paid to be listed.
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