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Add Salt

A native iOS recipe app, built solo with AI, to learn what AI-assisted development actually feels like and make something I'd want to use.

2026

Add Salt
The problem

Most recipe apps are databases with a timer. The pleasure of cooking gets lost between the ingredient list and the clock.

I wanted a cookbook, not a database. The second motive: to feel what AI-assisted development is actually like. So I built all of it myself, via Claude Code and Xcode.

Paprika · recipe
Paprika · steps
Paprika · App Store
Spec DSPBRG · REV.A
01Role
Designer & developer
02Stack
  • SwiftUI
  • CloudKit
  • Apple Vision
  • Python
  • Claude Code
03Status
TestFlight beta
04Year
2026

The hard parts (sync, import, shared accounts) are solved, so I could spend time on decisions. A weekly meal planner learns from what you cook and adjusts to time, budget, and what the kids will actually eat.

Desirable Viable Feasible AI Product Design
  • Native feel
  • Sharing flow
  • Speed
  • Usage tracking
  • Freemium model
  • Token spend
  • StoreKit pricing
  • Haiku vs Sonnet
  • Caching
  • CloudKit Sync
Framing the build as desirable × viable × feasible: where an AI product actually has to land.

Inside the app

A 75-second walkthrough

The killer feature is the weekly meal planner. Say who’s eating and what they like, and it builds the week in seconds, learning from what you actually cook.

Start a week menu
Set preferences
AI builds the week

Architecture

  • No backend. CloudKit syncs everything. No server, no logins.
  • AI through a small Worker, to keep the key off devices.
  • Sonnet for reasoning, Haiku for the rest.
On device
iPhone Mine
iPhone Partner
iPad Same user
Apple Watch Timers
Add Salt app SwiftUI · Liquid Glass
VisionKit OCR · on-device
Cloud + backend
CloudKit Private + shared
Cloudflare Worker Proxy · scrape + AI
Home NAS Price scraper · exp
AI providers
Sonnet Reasoning
Haiku The rest
The phone tries first; a Worker proxies AI and scraping across Sonnet and Haiku.

Craft

No Figma, no sketches. Designed in code, against real content. Cards built like movie posters, a brand palette plus per-recipe accents, and an A/S monogram like a cookbook spine. AI-augmented, not AI-decided.

Add Salt card system and per-recipe accent palette
The card system and per-recipe accent palette: Sage, Blush, Cabbage, Golden, Onion.

Recipes can be refined in place. The AI folds prep tips and timing into the steps, augmenting the cook, not replacing the recipe.

A recipe
AI prep tips
Timing in the steps

Tested in the wild

11 installs / 13 invites
22 sessions
0 crashes
4 builds in v1.2

The week menu is the killer feature, but generation takes 50+ seconds. The wait is dull.

— Krijn, tester

The API I can’t speed up; the perception I can. Recipes now reveal one by one, so the wait becomes anticipation.

Outcome

A real, shipped app, and the clearest answer I have to what AI-assisted product work actually looks like.

I wrote up the whole experiment, what worked and what didn’t, on LinkedIn ↗.

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