Personal Journal
A private journaling app, built from zero coding experience.
Stack
Why
I wanted a journaling tool that wasn't a note-taking app with journaling bolted on. Something that felt like opening a blank page. And I wanted to learn what it actually takes to ship something.
What it does
Private, authenticated journaling with rich text, daily entries, and a clean reading view. Entries live in a PostgreSQL database on Neon. The whole thing runs on a minimal React frontend with a Node.js API.
How I built it
I had zero coding experience when I started. I used Claude Code as a pair programmer: scoping features, explaining concepts from scratch, debugging line by line. The app went from idea to deployed in under two weeks.
What I learned
More than the code itself: how to think in terms of data models, API boundaries, and user flows. Shipping something real teaches you things no tutorial does.