Building TubeChat with Claude: From Idea to a Shipping Product

TubeChat started as a simple question: what if chatting with YouTube felt as natural as talking to a friend? Not “search,” not “scrub a timeline,” but ask a question and get an answer grounded in the video.

I wanted:

• A clean interface that doesn’t fight you
• Fast iteration (ship the first version, then improve)
• A workflow where AI helps with both code and product thinking

Claude ended up being the lever that made this possible.

The workflow that actually worked

The biggest win was treating Claude like a teammate with a clear job:

1. I provide constraints (stack, target UX, what “done” looks like)
2. Claude proposes an implementation plan
3. We iterate in tight loops: scaffold → wire data → ship UI → test edge cases

The key was keeping prompts concrete:

• “Generate a server route that validates input and returns typed JSON.”
• “Refactor this component so it’s a pure UI shell; move side effects to a hook.”
• “What are three failure modes for this flow, and how should we handle them?”

Architecture: boring on purpose

I chose a boring architecture because boring ships:

• A small set of API endpoints
• Clear separation between UI and data loading
• A single source of truth for video/transcript state

When things were unclear, I’d ask Claude to output a diagram or a sequence of steps, not code. That forced the design to be explicit.

What surprised me

1) Claude is better at review than first drafts

First drafts are fine, but the real value is in:

• spotting missing validation
• simplifying logic
• naming things consistently
• suggesting a smaller surface area

2) Shipping is an emotional problem

The hardest moments weren’t technical — they were the “this isn’t perfect yet” moments. Claude helped by reframing:

Ship the smallest version that proves the core loop. Then improve.

What I’d do differently next time

• Write the happy-path user journey first (one page)
• Define a couple of “must-not-break” tests early
• Keep the prompt history organized per feature

Closing thought

TubeChat isn’t just a product — it’s proof that with the right workflow, AI can turn momentum into something real. The tool matters, but the loop matters more: clarify → build → test → ship.