Build an iPhone and iPad Reading App with Claude Code Agents

Outreach Skailex · 1H AGO

I build, test, ship, and promote an iPhone and iPad reading app with Claude Code agents, each with a specific job. I wanted a reader for my own PDFs and EPUBs where I could write notes in the margin next to the line they belonged to. Nothing I tried did that well, so I built Helicon, a free reader for iPhone and iPad. I use it every day. I do not write most of the code by hand. I run several Claude Code sessions, each with one responsibility. A development session builds the app in Swift. A marketing session reads the usage numbers and finds places to tell people about the app. A separate designer agent, which did not draw the screens, chooses between two or three prototype variants before any UI change is built. Read-only reviewer agents check finished work against the goals I wrote at the start. The part that made this work is turning every mistake into a check rather than a note. When an agent gets something wrong, we turn the lesson into a test, script, or guard that prevents the same bad step next time. For example, the post script reads the community rules again before every post and stops if they have changed. Today, the app lets me hold the margin so a pin drops beside the line. The pin opens a note that I can type or write with Apple Pencil. Review brings notes back days later, next to their lines. The app also includes dark page themes and a speed-reading guide. Listen, which reads the book aloud with on-device voices, is currently in testing. Step-by-step: 1. I wrote down the goals in plain language: installs, people opening a book, minutes read, and the number of days they return. 2. A development session builds each feature test-first and runs the iOS test suite on a simulator before every push. 3. Before any UI change, the agent draws two or three variants. A designer agent that did not draw them chooses one and explains why. 4. I send each build to TestFlight for a small group of testers. 5. A marketing session reads the PostHog numbers every two hours and tries a new channel whenever a round is flat. 6. I send feedback from posts back to the development session as to-do items. 7. I encode every mistake as a test, script, or guard so it does not happen twice. 8. I keep the irreversible steps for myself: App Store submissions, prices, accounts, and deploys wait for my approval. Helicon on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6811677202?pt=125973633&ct=rundown&mt=8 Built with help from AI coding tools.