Building RepoGo: Your Editor, Anywhere

The Question That Started Everything

What if you could build full-stack applications right from your iPhone?

Not just view code. Not just make quick edits. I mean really build—with AI assistance, live preview, real-time debugging, and the full power of a professional IDE. All while waiting for your coffee, riding the subway, or lounging on your couch.

That question refused to leave my mind. And when curiosity takes hold of me, there's only one thing to do: explore uncharted territory and build something that works.

The Pivot That Changed Everything

Let me be honest: RepoGo wasn't my first idea.

I started building a Vibe code app—you know, another AI-powered coding assistant. I was excited. The code was coming together nicely. I got quite far, actually. But there was this nagging feeling I couldn't shake.

I was late. Lovable was already out there. V0, Bolt were all already crushing it. The market was crowded with talented teams building similar things. And here I was, adding another entry to an already long list.

Then one day, I asked myself a brutally honest question: "Would I actually use this? Would I open my tool instead of Cursor or VS Code?"

The answer was immediate and uncomfortable: No.

I wouldn't. Because I already had tools that did exactly what mine would do, and they were backed by well-funded teams with years of polish. Why would I—or anyone—switch?

So I asked myself a different question: "What would I actually use?"

And that's when everything changed.

I thought about my workflow. The times I had an idea away from my desk. The bugs I wanted to fix while commuting. The pull requests I wanted to review while lying on the couch. The side projects I wanted to work on during lunch breaks.

The answer hit me like lightning: What if Cursor was on my phone?

Not a toy. Not a mobile companion app with limited functionality. What if you could have the full power of a professional IDE—with AI, live preview, debugging, everything—right in your pocket?

That question ignited something in me. This wasn't about building another tool in a crowded market. This was about introducing the world to something genuinely new. About changing where and how developers write code. About refusing to accept that powerful development had to happen at a desk.

I've always been driven by curiosity—that relentless desire to push boundaries and discover what's possible. But this was different. This was curiosity with purpose. This was about building something I would actually use. Something that didn't exist yet.

So I pivoted completely and set out to build RepoGo: a complete development powerhouse engineered for mobile-first productivity. Not a compromise. Not a stripped-down version of a desktop IDE. The real deal.

The Technical Challenge: Performance Above All

Building an IDE for mobile isn't just about shrinking a desktop app. It's a completely different beast. When you're working with:

WebViews for rendering live previews
Complex editors with syntax highlighting and intelligent navigation
AI-powered code completion that understands your entire codebase
AI agent chat for AI assistance
Live server monitoring with console outputs

...every millisecond matters. Every optimization counts. Mobile devices have constraints that desktop machines laugh at.

The Expo Foundation

I chose Expo because I'm familiar with it—I've shipped apps with it before. When you're building something this ambitious solo, you need to leverage what you know and hit the ground running.

Performance was definitely a challenge. Running multiple webviews, a complex editor, AI chat, live preview, and real-time console monitoring simultaneously on a mobile device pushed the limits. I considered moving to Swift at one point, but I'd already made significant progress. So I decided to continue building with Expo and optimize where needed.

It works. And as I kept iterating, I found ways to make it work better.

Optimization Challenges (and Solutions)

Let me be honest: optimizing RepoGo was brutal. Each feature—webviews, editors, live preview, chat—is heavy by nature. Combining them all on a mobile device? That's where things get interesting.

The Editor: Syntax highlighting for dozens of languages, intelligent autocomplete, real-time linting—all while maintaining smooth scrolling and instant responsiveness. I spent weeks profiling, lazy-loading, and fine-tuning the rendering pipeline.

Live Preview: Running a development server on your phone and displaying the results in real-time means managing multiple processes, handling hot reload, and ensuring the webview doesn't tank your battery or memory.

AI Integration: Context-aware AI that understands your entire repository requires smart caching, efficient API calls, and lightning-fast context switching. The AI can't be useful if it takes 5 seconds to respond.

The File Tree: Navigating thousands of files on a 6-inch screen sounds impossible. Making it feel like home required custom virtualization, instant search, and gesture-based navigation that feels natural.

Every component was profiled, optimized, and profiled again. I measured frame rates, memory usage, battery drain. I rewrote systems multiple times. Performance wasn't a feature—it was the feature.

What RepoGo Became

After months of relentless iteration, RepoGo emerged as something I'm genuinely proud of:

Instant GitHub Integration

Every repository, one tap away. Lightning-fast search and seamless sync. Your entire GitHub universe in your pocket.

Git Operations Without the Terminal

Commit, push, pull, branch—all with confidence. No memorizing commands. No anxiety about messing something up.

AI That Actually Understands Your Code

This isn't autocomplete on steroids. RepoGo's AI knows your entire codebase, understands context, and writes production-ready code. It's like pair programming with a senior developer who never sleeps.

Professional IDE Experience

Full syntax highlighting, intelligent navigation, and a file tree that doesn't compromise. It's the IDE experience you expect, adapted perfectly for mobile.

Instant Live Preview

See your changes in real-time with a built-in browser. No deploy. No wait. Just code and watch it come to life.

Real-Time Server Monitoring

Track every console output, error, and warning as they happen. Debug with confidence, right from your phone.

Mobile-First Debugging

Full JavaScript console and inspector in your pocket. Because debugging shouldn't wait until you're back at your desk.

The Journey of Building Something That Works

This project taught me that "exploring what's possible" isn't about building toy demos or proof-of-concepts. It's about pushing through the hard parts—the performance bottlenecks, the edge cases, the 3 AM debugging sessions—until you have something that actually works in the real world.

Too many mobile IDE attempts have failed because they prioritized features over performance, or breadth over depth. RepoGo is my statement that you can have both. You can have the full power of a professional IDE and the fluidity of a native mobile experience.

What's Next

RepoGo is ready for early access, but the journey is far from over. Here's what's coming:

Billing & Monetization

Building sustainable infrastructure for a product that hosts development environments isn't cheap. I'm working on a fair pricing model that respects the value RepoGo provides while keeping it accessible to developers.

GitHub Apps Integration

Currently, RepoGo uses OAuth for GitHub authentication. The next major update will shift to GitHub Apps, giving you granular control over repository access. You'll be able to select exactly which repos RepoGo can access—nothing more, nothing less. This is about trust and security.

Expanded Language Support

While RepoGo already supports the most popular languages, I'm continuously adding more syntax highlighters, linters, and language-specific AI optimizations.

Collaboration Features

Code reviews, pair programming, and team workflows—all from mobile. Because modern development is rarely a solo sport.

The Curiosity That Drives Me

Looking back at the journey from that initial Vibe code app to RepoGo, I realize what truly drives me: the courage to ask hard questions and pivot when necessary.

Building RepoGo wasn't about disrupting an industry or chasing a market opportunity. It was about curiosity—pure, unbridled curiosity about what could be possible if we stopped accepting limitations as givens. And it was about honesty—being willing to abandon something that was "good enough" to chase something that could be genuinely transformative.

When I pivoted to RepoGo, people told me it couldn't be done. "Mobile CPUs are too weak." "The screen is too small." "Developers will never adopt it." I heard the same skepticism I faced when building the Vibe code app, but this time it felt different. This time, I was building something I would actually use.

Curiosity doesn't care about skepticism. It asks "what if?" and then goes to work finding out. It's willing to start over when the answer to "would I use this?" is no. It refuses to build something that already exists when there are uncharted territories waiting to be explored.

That's what drives me. Not the validation. Not the success metrics. The simple, powerful desire to explore new territory, ask uncomfortable questions, and build something that works—something that genuinely changes how developers work, even if just a little bit.

Try RepoGo

RepoGo is coming soon to early access, and I'm looking for developers who are ready to code from anywhere. If you're tired of being chained to your desk, if you've ever wished you could fix that bug while away from your computer, if you're curious about what's possible—join the waitlist.

This is just the beginning. Mobile-first development isn't a compromise anymore. It's the future.

Get early access at repogo.app

Have questions about building RepoGo or want to chat about mobile development? Reach out—I love talking about the technical challenges and solutions that made this possible.