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Chris Raroque

This creator makes content about developing mobile applications, often detailing mistakes made during the process and lessons learned. Topics include the importance of user feedback, implementing analytics, and the design of onboarding flows. The creator also discusses technical aspects like choosing databases, utilising AI in development, and integrating features such as widgets and augmented reality elements. Additionally, they share insights on app marketing and user acquisition strategies.

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Instagram ·chris.raroque
Followers45K
Avg views32K
Engagement3.0%
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What kind of content does Chris Raroque make?

Chris Raroque shares candid insights into the world of mobile app development, detailing common pitfalls and invaluable lessons learned. His content, primarily on Instagram, dives deep into crucial aspects like user feedback, analytics, and effective onboarding flows. Chris also explores technical topics, from database selection and AI integration to augmented reality features, alongside practical app marketing and user acquisition strategies.

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PART 2/12 ✶ Getting my code reviewed when it’s just me…

I picked this up from engineers much smarter than me: don’t let the AI that wrote your code be the only thing reviewing it.

Claude and Codex are genuinely good at reviewing code. But asking them to double-check their own work doesn’t mean they’ll catch everything.

A separate reviewer, especially one using a different model or a different approach to reviewing, can catch things the original agent missed.

So I spent some time looking for something I could add to my workflow and landed on Greptile. Not sponsored, by the way.

I honestly don’t know what they’ve done to make it this thorough. Even when I’m using Fable or Astra, it keeps finding things that were missed.

That’s the part that sold me. I’m already using really capable coding agents, and this extra review still makes a difference.

My current workflow is pretty simple:

Before anything gets merged into main, I ask Claude Code or Codex to open a pull request and let Greptile review it.

Then I have my coding agent work through the feedback, fix the actual issues, and run the review again.

I repeat that until the review reaches 5/5 and the outstanding issues are addressed. Then, once my tests and checks pass, we merge.

A 5/5 isn’t a guarantee that the code is perfect. I still test the app myself. But it gives me another opportunity to catch something before my users do.

When you’re the only developer, that extra check makes it a lot easier to sleep at night 🥲

It’s one of those things that’s become really hard for me to go back from.

Comment “bugs” and I’ll send you a link to the tool I’m using. There’s a free Starter plan, so you can try it without paying 👀

#softwaredeveloper #appdevelopment #solodev #buildinpublic #coding
PART 1/12 ✶ My $600/month team…

Forget the coding for a second. Even just for operations, these subscriptions are worth it.

I spend $400 on two Codex subscriptions and $200 on Claude. That’s $7,200 a year to help me run four apps full time.

Codex helps with customer support, marketing, App Store pages, feature launches, keeping my help centers updated, and monitoring reviews and bugs. These are just a few examples.

I regularly have 10+ agents running across my apps. It genuinely feels like having a team behind me, even though I’m still the one directing the work and reviewing it.

Before AI, I think getting this much help across development and operations could easily have cost me $15,000 a month in payroll. That’s my estimate, but $600 doesn’t come close to what I’d budget for even one ongoing part-time hire in the U.S.

Then you factor in the coding, and it becomes EXTREMELY worth it.

I used to ship one or two features a week, which already felt pretty fast. Now I’m shipping one or two a day while keeping up with bugs and everything else across my apps.

The development help alone feels like having another one or two full-time developers working with me.

But please don’t take this as “you need $600/month in subscriptions to build an app.” You don’t 🥲

If you’re working on one app, I’d start with one Codex subscription and use it for both coding and operations.

If you keep running out of usage, then consider a second subscription. You might want capacity for development separate from support, marketing, and all the other work.

For me, that could mean another Codex subscription, or adding Claude if design and really hard coding problems are a big part of the work.

The reason I’m comfortable spending this much is how much work I’m actually getting through. Start with one and give it more of the jobs you’re already doing before paying for more.

Follow for part two, where I’ll show you how I get my code reviewed when I’m the only developer 👀

#softwaredeveloper #appdevelopment #solodev #buildinpublic #codex
MISTAKE NO. 10/10 ✶ I got hacked 🤦‍♂️

Okay, here’s the detailed explanation of what happened, why it’s so common, and how to prevent it:

It all boils down to one thing: I didn’t realize Supabase RLS only controls which rows a user can update, not which columns inside those rows.

Supabase/Postgres does support column-level permissions, but they’re separate from RLS and I hadn’t configured them. You can’t just tell an RLS policy, “Let users edit this row except for this one column.”

My policy said users could only access their own account. I glanced at that and thought I was good because no one could edit anyone else’s data.

The problem was that I stored each person’s AI usage limit on that same user table. Because users could update their own row, they could also update the usage-limit column.

They didn’t need to use my app. Someone could call Supabase directly, raise their limit, and give themselves unlimited AI. Every request costs me money, so they could have run up a $10,000 bill.

This is why it’s so easy to miss. “Users can only edit their own data” sounds safe, but that row might also contain limits, credits, subscription tiers, roles, or admin flags that only your backend should control.

The best fix is moving backend-only values to a separate table. Users can have read-only access if needed, but only the backend should be able to update it.

If you can’t move the data yet, a temporary fix is a database trigger. Before saving an update, it compares the old and new values and rejects the request if a protected field changed.

Thankfully, the person who found this reported it instead of abusing it 🙏

After my original post, more than 10 developers told me they had the same vulnerability.

If you use Supabase, check every table users can update for anything they should never control.

I’m never launching another app without checking both which rows users can access and exactly which fields they can change.

This was mistake 10 of 10 from building four apps. Check out the other nine on my page, and follow along for my next series 🤠

#softwaredeveloper #appdevelopment #buildinpublic #supabase #vibecoding
MISTAKE NO. 9/10 ✶ Assuming my app was obvious to use 🤦‍♂️

The most dangerous screen in my app was the one with nothing on it…

Developers usually call this an empty state. It’s the screen someone sees before they’ve added any data.

In my budgeting app, new users opened the app to a completely blank budget. Before it became useful, they had to decide which categories they needed and create every one themselves.

I assumed people would figure it out, but the first beta test made it pretty clear they didn’t.

Only 3 out of the first 100 people actually got started. The feedback was really clear: people didn’t know which categories to make, and building an entire budget from scratch felt daunting.

To be fair, this was a very small sample size and a pretty extreme result, but it was a huge wake-up call for me.

So I made their job one tap. I added a button that generated sample categories they could keep, edit, or delete.

In the next small test, 100% of users started adding categories. After that first tap, almost no one had to sit on the empty screen anymore.

I’ve started doing this in my other apps too. In Ellie, my daily planning app, the empty state helps people generate ideas for lists instead of expecting them to come up with everything themselves.

I still catch myself assuming an app is obvious because I built it. There’s almost always another way to guide the user and reduce how much they have to figure out.

I’m never leaving new users with an empty app and expecting them to figure it out again.

This was mistake 9 of 10. The last one is about how one of my apps got hacked 🥲

#softwaredeveloper #appdevelopment #buildinpublic #indiedev

Who is Chris Raroque’s audience?

Chris Raroque's audience is likely comprised of aspiring and established mobile app developers, product managers, and tech enthusiasts interested in the practical aspects of app creation and growth. Their intent signals are strong, as evidenced by the high engagement rate of 3.00% on Instagram, surpassing the platform benchmark of 1.5%. This suggests an audience actively seeking actionable advice on developer mistakes, user feedback integration, and app marketing strategies, with a particular interest in emerging trends like AI in development. The quality of engagement is therefore expected to be high, with users likely to comment, share, and seek further clarification on the technical and strategic content provided.

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