I’ve always wanted a personal news aggregator, one that not only pulls articles on topics I care about but also summaries them for a quick read. For years, a project like that felt like a multi-week coding marathon. But recently, I built the entire thing in a single day, with barely a line of manual code.
How? By ditching traditional development and embracing a modern, no-code-first approach. Here’s how I did it.
The Automated Data Engine
Every app needs data, but I didn’t want to manually collect it. Instead, I built an automated “data engine” using two key tools:
- n8n for Workflow Automation: I created a visual workflow in n8n that acts as an intelligent agent. It automatically scans my favorite RSS feeds, fetches new articles, and this is the crucial part. Sends the content to the Google Gemini AI for a detailed summary.
- Google Sheets as a Database: Why spin up a complex database for a prototype? My n8n workflow pipes all the processed articles title, source, link, and the new AI summary directly into a simple Google Sheet. It’s simple, visual, and works perfectly.
With this engine running, I had a self-updating stream of summarized news without any manual effort.
The Instant Frontend
With the backend sorted, it was time to build the user interface. Instead of opening a code editor, I opened an AI development tool (Firebase Studio). My entire job was to write a single, detailed prompt.
The key was prompt engineering. I didn’t just say “build me a news app.” I gave the AI specific instructions and generate a prompt from AI itself:
Now I have used this prompt into Firebase Studio to generate a prototype.
The Firebase took Gemini’s prompt and generated the entire frontend and a simple Python backend in minutes. It did in a moment what would have taken me a full day of coding.
The One-Click Launch
With a complete codebase generated by the AI, getting the app online was the easiest part. I pushed the code to a GitHub repository and connected it to Vercel. Vercel handled the rest, automatically deploying the app and making it live on the web.
The No-Code Revolution
This project was a revelation. By connecting a few powerful no-code and AI tools, I went from an idea to a live, AI-powered web application in a fraction of the time I thought possible.
The barrier to creating on the web has never been lower. The question is no longer “Can you code it?” but “Can you describe it?”
What will you build?