Building GiftBoxd: One Dad, AI, and a Week of Late Nights
GiftBoxd is less than a week old. Yet somehow, I've got a marketing website live, a fully functional iOS app with comprehensive features, and it's all been built in the evenings between family life, kids' bedtime stories, and the general chaos of being a dad in Cornwall.
Here's the thing: I'm not some startup founder with VC funding and a team of developers. I'm just a guy with an idea, a full-time job as a Software Architect, and two young boys whose birthdays collide with Christmas. The difference? We're living in the age of AI.
The Problem That Started It All
My boys Zac and Noah have birthdays that fall right around Christmas. Every year, I'd find myself drowning in “who's got what” lists, broken spreadsheets, and the constant fear of buying duplicate gifts or forgetting someone entirely. I'm not a spreadsheet person. I'm an app developer with 20+ years' experience.
So naturally, I thought: I'll just build something.
But here's the catch: I didn't have time. Between work and family, side projects usually die on the vine. The difference now? AI has become my co-founder, senior developer, and creative sounding board.
My AI Development Team
Cursor manages my website and handles parts of the app build. It's like having a pair programming partner who never gets tired and always remembers every detail of the codebase.
Claude Code does the heavy lifting on development tasks. Need a complex SwiftData model? Claude writes it. Want analytics views with proper data aggregation? Done. It's like having a senior iOS developer who works at the speed of thought.
Xcode's AI tooling handles the day-to-day coding tasks. Code completion, refactoring suggestions, and bug fixes happen in real-time as I type.
ChatGPT is my creative sounding board and senior developer. When I hit a wall or need to think through architecture decisions, ChatGPT helps me work through the problem. It's like having a co-founder who's always available for a brainstorming session.
Even this blog post is AI-assisted. I'm writing it, but I'm using AI to help structure my thoughts and polish the copy.
What I Built in a Week
The app isn't just a simple list. It's a comprehensive gift management system with:
Gift Tracking: Track gifts from idea to given, with status management (Idea → Purchased → Ready → Given), cost tracking, purchase dates, and source information.
Gift Ideas Management: Capture ideas before buying, set priorities (High/Medium/Low), estimate costs, add photos, and convert ideas to purchases with one tap.
Recipient Management: Connect to iPhone contacts, set budgets per person, add notes about preferences, and track gift history.
Analytics & Insights: View spending across different time periods (All Time, This Year, Last 12 Months), break down spending by recipient and occasion, compare planned vs actual spending, and see budget performance.
Multi-Platform Support: Native iPhone and iPad apps with tab-based navigation, plus an Apple Watch app for quick access to core features.
Smart Integration: Add links to online stores, connect to Apple Maps for physical locations, photo integration with camera and photo library, and SwiftData with cloud sync.
Advanced Features: Group gifts for multiple recipients, priority indicators, status tracking with visual cues, spending summaries, and automatic data backup.
The Technical Stack
- SwiftUI for the user interface
- SwiftData for data persistence with cloud sync
- iOS Contacts integration
- Apple Maps integration
- PhotoKit for image handling
- WatchKit for Apple Watch support
The app uses modern iOS frameworks and follows Apple's design guidelines. Everything stays on your device, with optional cloud sync for backup and cross-device access.
The Reality of AI-Assisted Development
AI hasn't replaced the need for understanding code or making architectural decisions. It's amplified my ability to execute ideas quickly. I still need to understand what I'm building, why I'm building it, and how it all fits together.
What AI has done is remove the friction between having an idea and seeing it work. Instead of spending hours writing boilerplate code or debugging syntax errors, I can focus on the user experience and the problems I'm trying to solve.
No Backend, No Accounts, No Nonsense
Here's something that might surprise you: I hate subscriptions. We don't have anything apart from Amazon Prime, and even that's only for the free delivery. CDs, Blu-rays, vinyl all the way. I hate having to sign into stuff.
So when I built GiftBoxd, I did not want it to have a backend. No accounts, no data collection, no servers to maintain. It's not worth my time. Suddenly you need a help desk, GDPR compliance, data governance, security audits. Sod that. I have to deal with enough of that in my day job, I don't need it creeping into my side projects.
Everything in GiftBoxd stays on your device. SwiftData handles the local storage, and if you want cloud sync, that's handled by Apple's infrastructure, not mine. I don't see your data, I don't want your data, and I don't have the time or inclination to build systems to collect it.
I couldn't care less about your shopping habits. There aren't even any affiliate links because I couldn't be bothered to try to understand the rules from the likes of Amazon, eBay, and the rest of them.
The only things I see are installation numbers (so I know if anyone's actually using this) and crash reports (so I can fix bugs when they happen). That's it.
This isn't some privacy-first marketing angle. It's just practical. I'm a dad with limited time, building something to solve my own problem. I don't need the complexity of user accounts, password resets, or data breaches.
What's Next
GiftBoxd is in TestFlight now. I'm getting feedback from early users and iterating based on what they actually need, not what I think they need.
The goal isn't to build the next unicorn startup. It's to solve a real problem I have, and if it helps other people too, that's a bonus.
The Bottom Line
This isn't a story about AI replacing developers. It's about AI enabling developers to build better things faster. I'm still the one making the decisions, understanding the user needs, and crafting the experience. AI is just the tool that lets me execute those ideas without getting bogged down in implementation details.
GiftBoxd. No ads. No data grabs. No nonsense. Ever.
Just a dad who built something useful in his spare time, with a little help from AI.
Want to try GiftBoxd? Join the TestFlight beta and help shape the app.