A little while back I got handed a pretty big task at work: build a new Learning Management System (LMS) for the company. I went in expecting a slog, and instead it ended up completely changing how I think about what’s possible with the tools we have now.
The setup
Most of our apps run on OutSystems since we already have another internal app on it. OutSystems has its place, but for this project it kept getting in my way. The compile times were slow enough to break my focus, the codebase was a pain to track changes in, there wasn’t much room to customize the features we actually needed, and extending content felt way more involved than it should have been.
After enough of that, I didn’t want to force this project into the same mold.
Going off-script
So I made a call that felt a little risky: build it in React and Vite instead. That meant stepping outside our normal stack and betting on tools that weren’t part of our standard workflow. It took a good amount of research and some fast learning, but I figured the upside was worth it. Honestly, the projects where I learn the most are usually the ones where I take that kind of swing.
Then I found Claude Code
This is the part that actually changed things for me. I’d tried other AI coding tools before, including Cursor and GitHub Copilot, but Claude Code clicked in a way they didn’t. It lives in my terminal and understands my whole project instead of just autocompleting the next line. It helps me think through problems, it’s genuinely useful when I’m stuck on a bug, and it gives me solid guidance on how to structure things.
For $20, I had a working prototype built and deployed to Vercel in about two weeks. When I think about what that would’ve taken me otherwise, that’s kind of wild.
The honest part
It’s not perfect. There are message caps, and you’ll hit limits in certain windows. But for how I actually work, that hasn’t really slowed me down.
Where it’s headed
I’m more excited about this project than anything I’ve worked on in a while. What started as a daunting ask turned into one of the most fun stretches of development I’ve had. I can’t wait to demo it and show the team what you can pull off with the right tools and a little willingness to go off the beaten path.