How it started​

Like most app ideas, this started with two friends in a garage, too much caffeine, and a first-world problem. (I'm not just saying that because of the garage‑startup cliché — we were literally in my garage.)

PromptMi started when I was working on building an app for my best friend Zach.
The app was called Neuro.fyi, and it was a tool to help identify
what neurotransmitters a person may be deficient in and offer helpful advice on
how they could improve their mental well-being. The suggestions were generated using
Google's Gemini model.

I demoed the app to Zach, and while he was excited by the presentation, he noticed that,
as is often the case with AI, the results were not totally accurate. So, we decided that
we should tune the prompts to hopefully improve the results. This is where we discovered
the issue that PromptMi aims to solve.

The Issue​

The issue was that in order to tune the prompts I had two options:

• I send Zach the current prompt and have him send me back the new version, plug the new version into the code, build the app locally, and then send him screenshots of the results, only for him to want to once again adjust the prompt.
• Help Zach figure out how to make changes directly to the code and build the app locally, then have him submit a pull request with his changes.

Both of these options were inefficient and put a strain on our already
limited sanity.

The Solution​

So, I did what every developer does when faced with a minor inconvenience. I spent dozens of hours building an app. At least this one may be useful to someone, though.

PromptMi is a tool that allows you to manage your AI prompts on a user-friendly web interface and
have them automagically integrate with your codebase. When you change a prompt in our dashboard,
a process running on your dev machine, server, or even in your serverless backend will automatically
update the prompt in your codebase.

How does it work?​

I won't get too deep into the details here since this is meant to be a non-technical
article. But I'll give a high-level overview of how it works.

PromptMi includes a tool that constantly communicates with our database, waiting
for a new version of your project to be created. When it detects a new version,
it will automatically update the prompts in your codebase. It also sets up helpful
types and functions to make it easy to integrate with your codebase.

TL;DR​

PromptMi was built because my product manager best friend didn't want to mess with code and I didn't want him messing with it either. So, I built an app that lets non-technical people edit and manage prompts without having to go through their devs.

Thank you for your interest in PromptMi!​

We hope this devlog helps you understand what PromptMi is and the product and technical decisions that went into building it. We will share our rationale, technical trade-offs, lessons learned, roadmaps, and release notes.

This devlog exists to help customers, inform peers, and inspire developers who don't think they can build their own products. If I can do it, then nothing is stopping you.

To the Customer​

I hope that seeing the amount of thought, planning, and effort that went into this product will give you confidence in your decision to trust us with your business and your data.

To My Developer Peers​

I hope that you will find value in the technical decisions and solutions that led to PromptMi and that you will be able to use this devlog to confidently recommend us to stakeholders and fellow developers.

To the Developer Who Wants to Build Their Own Product​

DO IT!

Don't be afraid to put your work out there and to build the app, service, or product that you've been dreaming of. The worst that can happen is that you will learn a lot from the process and be better at your craft on the other side.