How to use AI to plan a new app
Starting a project from scratch deserves more than just plan mode
Starting a project from scratch can be daunting. In today’s article, I’ll show you how I use AI tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor to get architect and design new work from scratch.
I’ll include real examples from a project I’m just kicking off, as well as a prompt template you can use to kickstart your new project planning.
Our example project today is an AI-powered web app that helps writers turn their newsletters into short posts.
New project planning prompt
We can use a chatbot first to get a solid set of requirements for our project. If you don’t even know what your requirements are, it’s way too early to write code.
The goal of the planning step is to produce three things:
A Project Requirements Document (PRD)
A high-level architecture overview
A set of design wireframes
To start, use this prompt to have your LLM of choice interview you until it has what it needs to produce drafts of this document.
