I just got back from Marrakech, and honestly it was a brilliant trip. But one thing stuck with me that had nothing to do with the souks or the food.

We went on a private walking tour, my wife, my sister, her husband and their kid, all wandering around the medina with a local guide. It was great. But here’s the thing I noticed: everyone wanted something completely different from it. My sister was all about the facts and figures, how old is this building, how many people live here, what’s the population. My wife wanted something more like a story, a narrative thread connecting everything as we walked.

One guide, five different people, five different expectations. You can’t win.

The Hotel Bar Prototype

When we got back, everyone went for a nap or curled up with a book. I grabbed my iPad, found a seat at the hotel bar outside, ordered a drink, and thought, you know what, I’m going to see if I can make my own tour guide.

About half an hour later, I had a working prototype.

I had an empty GitHub repo I keep around just for messing about. I typed up a spec for what I wanted, how I wanted it to behave, what I wanted it to feel like. Grabbed a few API keys from Anthropic, gave it to Claude Code on my iPad, had another drink and before I finished my drink the thing was running.

What It Actually Does

It’s a web page. You hit “Start Tour” and it looks at where you are, does a search for the area, finds anything relevant nearby, and then just starts talking you through it. Like a tour guide, but one that knows exactly where you’re standing. I gave it a personality and told it how I wanted it to talk and guide me.

What I want to add next is a style selector. Three buttons on the screen. One for a story-driven experience where it weaves together a narrative as you walk. One that’s more factual and informative. And one that just gives you something interesting about wherever you happen to be standing, no agenda, no route, just a little moment of curiosity wherever you are (how it works now).

This Isn’t an App You’ll Find on the App Store

And that’s kind of the point.

I’m not building this to sell. I’m not pitching it to investors. This is a tool built entirely for me, with the exact UI I like, the exact flow I find useful, the exact experience I actually wanted on that tour.

That’s what I keep coming back to with where AI is heading. We talk a lot about the big apps, the ones from Google or Apple, the ones with millions of users. And those will always exist. But what’s new, what’s genuinely exciting, is that the gap between “I wish there was an app that did this” and “there is now an app that does this” has basically collapsed for people who are willing to have a go.

It’s not for everyone, and that’s fine. You need to be comfortable tinkering a bit. But if you are, you can now build something perfectly suited to you. Not kind of suited to you. Not mostly suited to you with three features you’d never use. Actually built for you, the way you want it, because you made it yourself. And this IS going to get easier.

That half hour in the hotel bar in Marrakech is all I needed and that may not sound like chilling out and enjoying a holiday but it was for me.

Whats next?

Well I just had a BBQ and I feel like the Bluetooth thermometer I use is lets say not great. The app is shit and because its bluetooth the range is not great either. Soooooo I’m going to see if I can build and code a better one. I’ll let you know how I get on.