Joe's Automaton Army

What are the best AI tools for coding? Which of the way too many options can you use to create your own software and web apps, whether you have prior coding experience or not.

Entrepreneurs always looking for ways to streamline our processes and better serve our customers and communities. But what if the perfect tool for your business or community or even your personal productivity doesn’t exist yet?

The good news is, you don’t need to be a coding expert to create a web app or custom software. Today, I’m going to show you the best AI tools for coding, plus exactly how you can build a web app with them.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been knee-deep in building new apps and tools for my community. What’s exciting is that I’ve been able to do this mostly with AI assistance, using tools like Claude and Cursor. Even with my limited coding knowledge (just some HTML, CSS, and a little PHP and JavaScript), I’ve managed to build entire web apps all by myself, no developer needed.

This isn’t just a personal achievement – it’s an opportunity that’s open to almost any entrepreneur. Whether you have a little bit of coding knowledge or none at all, these AI tools make it surprisingly easy to create custom solutions for your business needs.

I’ll share the full process below, but if you prefer to watch how to do this, check out this YouTube video I recorded laying out the process.

Or listen to the post here:

First, let’s make this practical. Here are a couple of the tools I’ve built in just the last month:

This app helps users focus on their tasks by setting a timer. If they stop working, it plays a motivational sound. This kind of tool could be adapted for various business contexts, from managing employee productivity to helping customers stay on track with their goals.

Check it out here.

Writers love writing sprints. The idea is you set a timer, then write as much as you can until the timer goes off. It’s kind of like the Pomodoro Method for writers, a great focus tool.

We recommend writers use timers like this all time time in our process, but we’ve never had our own to recommend… until now!

This was actually kind of difficult to build, even though it’s a fairly simple concept, but I think it turned out great!

Check out the writing sprint timer.

This tool helps users our users plan long-term projects like writing a book. You can input your project end date, specify your total word count goal, and the app calculates a daily and weekly schedule.

You can then print your schedule, put it in a spreadsheet, set calendar reminders, or even share your new deadline on social media or in our community forum.

Check out the book writing deadline calculator here.

These tools took about three or four days each to build, working on them for a few hours each afternoon. Which is all to say it wasn’t easy, but also I couldn’t have built them, much less in a few days, without AI.

The process I use involves two main tools: Claude and Cursor.

Claude is an AI chat-based assistant similar to ChatGPT. What makes it unique is that it has some cool interfaces and better coding capabilities.

Here’s how I use it to start my web app building process:

For example, when I built the deadline calculator, I explained the basic concept to Claude and even attached the screenshot of a spreadsheet we were already using. Claude then gave me suggestions for how to structure the web app.

The next step is to take the outline for your app and copy and paste it into Cursor.

Cursor is a code editor based on VS Code with integrated AI tools, namely Claude and ChatGPT.

The AI can generate code based on your normal instructions and directly insert it into your code files or even replace your existing code with new code based on your suggestions.

Cursor has both free and paid options, as well as free two-week trial (which is awesome). While the free version is functional, I definitely recommend the Pro account if you want to do any normal development work.

For me, I take the outline of the app that I created in Claude and copy and paste it into the chat pane. (Cursor also has a “Composer” tool that can work as an extremely powerful app builder, but it’s a little complicated. I’ll save that for a future post!)

The initial code from Cursor is often usable as-is, I typically spend time improving and debugging it. For me, this process of prompting, generating, testing, debugging, and adding new features typically takes several hours over a few days for a tool like the deadline calculator.

But what do you do with your code once you’ve created it?

If you’re using WordPress for your business website, you can easily host your new app using a plugin called Custom Snippets:

Easy! This allows you to run custom code on a basic WordPress website without needing a fancy server setup.

Important: Badly written code can crash your website! It probably won’t the first time, but I’ve definitely taken my whole site down a few times. So make sure, when working with custom code on your website always have a backup of your site and either know how to contact your server support or how to log into your server’s file manager and/or database so you can deactivate

That being said, using a Code Snippets for WordPress usually makes it easy to deactivate problematic code. Still, it’s good to be on the safe side!

Also, if you’re building a larger project,  say something over 1000 lines of code or requiring user accounts or other bigger features, you’ll want to either create custom WordPress plugin or build a standalone web app, both of which Claude and Cursor can help with!

With AI, you can build tools much faster than writing all the code yourself. You can learn to code faster by getting AI’s feedback and help you understand the code you’re working with. Plus, it’s easier to try new things and iterate quickly.

While you could potentially write the code yourself with enough time and Google searches, AI tools like Claude and Cursor allow you to work much faster and avoid getting distracted or bogged down in details.

If you’re interested in trying this out, go download Cursor from cursor.com.

You can bring your ideas to life without needing to become a fully-fledged developer. You don’t need to study code for years to create a simple web app that transforms your business or work. You can do this NOW, today, and learn through the process.

What could you build today? And have you tried building your own web apps or online tools for your business? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Best AI Tools for Coding: How to Build Your Own Web App with AI appeared first on Joe's Automaton Army.

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“My wife forgets to turn off the lights when she leaves the house,” a reader told me recently. “I’d like a lights automation that turns them off when I leave home.”

Good news for all the penny-pinching dads out there (of which I am definitely one)! If you want to spend less money on electricity, save time by not having to walk around the house before you leave, plus possibly save your marriage (or at least some annoyance with your spouse), there’s an automation for turning off your lights when you leave the house.

And it’s not even that hard!

Why automate your lights? Here are three three biggest reasons creating a “turn off the lights” automation will help you:

Save $76, 24 hours per year, and reduce your emissions by 529 pounds? That’s a pretty crazy automation! Let’s get it started shall we?

Possibly the easiest way to turn off your lights automatically is through a smart bulb.

Just buy a wifi integrated light bulb, like Phillips Hue, pop it into a lamp or ceiling light, set it up in your app, and voila: you now have an automated light.

The problem is that now your light is only automated when the light switch is on.

What if, say, a child or your beloved spouse or your friend Daniel turns off the light one day. Now your automation is broken until you notice and turn it back on.

When we’re thinking about any automation, we want to avoid fragile systems that can break with just the flip of a… well, switch, and in my experience, smart bulbs, unfortunately, aren’t the smartest as far as automation goes.

So what’s the best option? The question is, do you want the easy way, the medium way, or the most advanced way?

As I mentioned, there are three different types of automations to turn off your lights with an automation:

Starting with the basics, the easiest way to dive into automating your home lighting involves using smart plugs. This method should cost less than $10 and take less 5-minutes or less to set up. Just plug a lamp into a smart plug, which then plugs directly into your wall outlet.

From there, use the plug’s app on your smartphone to set specific light automation schedules schedules for when the lamp turns on and off based on the time of day.

For example, every weekday, your living room lamp lights up right at 6 PM, welcoming you home, and then dims down at bedtime.

This is a perfect, simple automation for anyone who wants to dip their toes into home automation without committing to a full system overhaul but still will help in convenience and energy savings.

Cost: $7.99 for a Kasa Smart Plug (Get it on Amazon)

Difficulty: The Easiest

Get started here.

When you’re ready to level up from smart plugs, the next best step is to get a Lutron motion sensor wall switches to turn your lights off when the room is empty.

These are not “smart” in the sense that they don’t connect to the internet or other devices. Instead, they use XCT motion sensing technology to detect even small amounts of motion, so they really know when the room is unoccupied and can auto turn-off.

You can then program your lights to turn off based on your preference, either 1, 5, 15, or 30 minutes after they sense no movement. For example, you could set the lights in your kids’ room to auto turn-off after 15-minute time delay from when they leave the room.

What’s cool is that you can even set your lights to not turn on when there’s enough sunlight in the room, which I feel is the ultimate Dad-mode automation.

Cost: $39.49 per switch (Get it on Amazon)

Difficulty: Fairly easy setup with a screwdriver and YouTube tutorial, but you may need to hire an electrician to install.

Get started Lutron motion sensor switches here.

If you’re ready to create a fully automated home environment, you can switch to Lutron Caseta’s smart switch system. This setup replaces your traditional light switches with smart switches that connect to your home’s Wi-Fi network.

With Lutron Caséta, you can control not only lamps (using their smart plugs) but also built-in ceiling fixtures and other hardwired lights.

They act as normal switches, meaning they’ll work even if the wifi goes down, but they connect to Lutron Caséta Smart Bridge hub for full home automation.

This means you can set your lights to auto turn-off at a certain time every day, say 8:30 am every weekday when the family has left the house for the day. You can also have them turn on if you want, for example at 6:45 am when everyone needs to get ready for the day or 20 minutes before sunset so you don’t have to flip the switch while you’re cooking.

Lutron’s full home, smart lighting system not only will allow you to turn on and off your ceiling and wall lights, but also your floor and table lamps with their lamp dimmer kits. I spend so much time fiddling with those little knobs on lamps. With Lutron Caseta, you can not only turn on all your lamps with a switch, but you can turn them all off, along with every other light in your home if you’d like, with one tap on the app.

All of Lutron’s smart switches have dimming features, which allow you to set the lights at your personal brightness preference, and with your automations, you can even change your dimmer preferences for different times of the day.

You can even control plug-in outdoor lighting with their smart outdoor lighting plug, for example to act as a light timer for Christmas lights or coordinate a set of outdoor string lights with your Ring camera.

And instead of the motion sensor switches, you can install Lutron’s ceiling occupancy sensor in a few key rooms to further automate your lights turning off.

Then, once you’ve installed all of your switches, you can integrate with IFTTT, the automation builder that specializes in home automation and “internet of things” to create a geofencing automation, meaning as soon as you leave your home, you can set the lights to turn off (Note: Lutron Caseta has it’s own occupancy system, but it can be a bit finicky.)

You may have noticed I’m pushing pretty hard for Lutron over other brands. After all, there are dozens of other smart switch and smart lighting products, but Lutron Caseta’s system has been the most reliable for years.

You don’t want to have problems with your smart switches. They need to work every time, no matter what. Inevitably, people will try other products and then end up gradually switching to Lutron after their other products break. Someday, there will be other equally reliable options (Brilliant might be close), but Lutron is still the leader in simple, strong, reliable smart lighting automation systems.

Plus, Lutron’s Caseta system is fully compatible with all the major home automation systems, from Amazon Alexa to Google Home to Apple HomeKit automations. You can even control your lights from your Apple Watch, which gives you even more location-based automation options.

This level of lighting automation automation will not only save you time and money but will also give you more home security, since you can program lights to turn on and off at irregular intervals when you’re away.

You can even grab a starter pack and then gradually add to your system over time.

Cost: $69.99 to get started and up to $3,000+ depending on the number of switches you want to install and automate

Difficulty: while each individual switch is fairly easy to install with a screwdriver, a Youtube tutorial, and some experience with electrical work, replacing all the switches might be worth hiring an electrician.

Get started with the Lutron Caseta eco-system here, then set up your IFTTT integration. You can also watch a full review of Lutron’s home lighting automation system here:

One final note: Lutron’s Caseta hub works for up to 75 switches.  If you need more than that, you may want to hire a Lutron certified electrician who can install their RadioRA 3 system, which can support up to 400 devices.

Well, I said there were three options, but I have one more EXTREME method for you: which is to use Home Assistant’s open source home automation software to create your personal home dashboard, integrating not just your Lutron smart switches, but also all your other home automation tools into a closed, secure, fully automated system.

Setting up Home Assistant is beyond the scope of this article, but we’ll tackle it soon.

Each of these methods offers a unique approach to achieving the same goal: reducing energy usage, saving time, helping the environment, and avoiding tedium by simplifying your daily routines.

Whether you’re just getting started with smart lighting or you’re ready to fully automate your entire home with smart lighting, we want to hear from you!  Give one of these options a try and let us know how it goes for you! Just leave a comment below and share your experience.

Which of these options are you interested in trying? Let us know in the comments!

Listen to the podcast episode along with this automation:

The post Turn Off the Lights Automation: How to Easily and Automatically Turn Off Your Home Lights appeared first on Joe's Automaton Army.

I want to introduce you to my new website, Joe’s Automaton Army, which is kind of a tech blog, community, and place to figure out what’s happening in this world of automations and AI and productivity tools.

When it comes to AI, productivity, and automation, there are so many tools out there! You might not be quite sure how to use them, and more importantly, how to solve your real life problems.

That’s why we’re here, to help you come up with really interesting solutions through automation to solve your everyday problems.

If we haven’t met, my name is Joe, and I’m a Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a dad. I’m not a software developer or a tech guy. I’m just a writer. But I’ve been using automations to run my business and get more done with less for years. Now, I’m starting this community to help you do the same!

So check us out here at automatonarmy.com, and when you subscribe, you’ll get a copy of our 10 best tools for automations to help you solve your real life problems.

Looking forward to hearing what you think and welcome to the Fight Against Tedium.

The post Introducing Joe’s Automaton Army appeared first on Joe's Automaton Army.