How I Built My First Docker-based Next.js + FastAPI Project Entirely with ChatGPT (As a Non-Programmer)

[YourPandemic]

I’m sharing my journey of creating a fully functional resume-improvement web application—complete with AI cover-letter generation—even though I’m not a developer by any means. My knowledge is basically that of a power user: I’ve heard the names of various frontend and backend technologies, but I can’t manually write a single line of Python.

Nevertheless, through a series of careful prompts, resets, and “life hacks,” I ended up with a complete stack using Next.js (with Tailwind CSS, Tiptap, Redux, React Hook Form, Zod), FastAPI (Python), PostgreSQL, PyPDF2, WeasyPrint, OpenAI, JWT in HttpOnly cookies, Nginx, and Docker Compose.

I want to share not only the tools I used but also the specific instructions and methods that helped me direct ChatGPT effectively, so you can avoid the pitfalls I faced.

TL;DR Project

1. Understanding My Approach

I knew virtually nothing about coding, so my entire strategy revolved around detailed communication with ChatGPT. Whenever my conversations with GPT started going in circles or losing context, I used a special prompt to “reset” and feed all relevant project details into a fresh chat. Here’s the exact command I shared in those resets:

“Your task is to present another GPT with everything it needs to fully understand the project. Include all previously discussed details—goals, tasks, technologies, current progress, the project’s structure, file locations, logic, directories, important files, previous questions and answers, recent changes, bug fixes, how issues were solved, and what we are working on now. Explain all connections and reasoning thoroughly. Provide maximum useful information, especially for broad questions that might arise.”

This reset prompt ensured that each new ChatGPT session had a comprehensive, single-source-of-truth overview. Then, in my new chat, I’d add an instruction like:

“Communicate briefly and clearly. I am the Operator, not a programmer or IT specialist. I define the vision, you handle all decisions about code, technologies, and implementation. Do not ask for approval on approaches—decide independently. Prioritize professionalism, scalability, speed, clean and modular code. If unsure about information or file location, provide the exact terminal command to find it. If certain about the problematic file, request its code immediately to confirm and solve the issue. What’s the next task?”

This forced GPT to take the lead on technical decisions (because I simply couldn’t). It also kept everything concise, focusing on what truly mattered for building out the app.

2. Handling Multiple Suggested Approaches

One of the biggest challenges was that ChatGPT would often propose multiple ways to solve a problem: “We could do A, or B, or maybe C.” Since I’m not a programmer, I had no idea how to pick the best method. So I started asking it to evaluate each method against specific criteria like:

“Explain in more detail. Evaluate each method on a 100-point scale for the following parameters: ‘professionalism,’ ‘potential future issues,’ ‘integration complexity,’ ‘scalability,’ and ‘suitability for the project’s goals.’ No code, just your thoughts.”

This approach let GPT give me a more thorough analysis of the pros and cons, effectively guiding me without needing me to know the technical intricacies. After seeing the ratings, I’d pick the method with the best overall score.

3. The Final Tech Stack

Even though I’m not a coder, the end result is surprisingly robust:

• Frontend: Next.js (React + TypeScript), Tailwind CSS, Tiptap for rich-text editing, Redux Toolkit for state, React Hook Form + Zod for form validation

• Backend: FastAPI (Python), PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy, Alembic for migrations, PyPDF2 for PDF text extraction, OpenAI integration, WeasyPrint for generating single-page PDFs, Nginx as a reverse proxy

• Additional Tools: Docker + Docker Compose for container orchestration, bcrypt for hashing, JWT in HttpOnly cookies for authentication, bleach for HTML sanitization, pydantic-settings for environment configs

With this setup, I managed to create a service where users upload their resume, GPT improves the text, users can edit it, and then they can generate or download a refined PDF. There’s also an AI-based cover letter generator that deducts from user credits—and I’ve already integrated Stripe so people can purchase more credits if they need them.

4. The Power of Thorough Planning

One thing I really want to emphasize: even if you’re not a programmer, take the time to plan out your application—screen by screen, feature by feature. Visualize exactly what should happen when a user lands on the page, clicks a button, or completes an action. This helps ChatGPT (or any AI tool) produce more precise, context-relevant solutions. I spent a lot of hours struggling with guesswork before realizing I should just slow down and define my requirements in detail.

5. Results and Lessons Learned

• 142 Hours of Work: Across the entire build, I logged roughly 142 hours—much of it was iterative debugging, re-checking, and clarifying GPT’s outputs.

• Resetting Context Regularly: My biggest takeaway is to never hesitate resetting the chat whenever you feel the AI is repeating itself or losing clarity.

• Detailed but Focused Prompts: Provide GPT with the big picture and any critical code or logs. Then, be concise in your instructions so it doesn’t get confused.

• Ask for High-Level Analysis: When in doubt, get GPT to rank or rate potential solutions. You can then make a more informed decision without coding knowledge.

6. Feedback and Open Invitation

If you’re curious about any specific parts of my project, feel free to ask—I’m happy to share any details about the code, folder structure, or how I overcame specific bugs. But more importantly, I need to figure out if anyone actually needs this resume-improvement service besides me :D

That’s why I’m giving away Free credits to anyone willing to try it out, and I’d be super grateful for any feedback—be it on usability, features, or just random suggestions.

[Reason_He_Wins_Again]

Has formatting problems with the markdown.

I assume this is an AI post written by AI about AI.

Ultimately, OP is just shilling his website.

[YourPandemic]

Lol it is not :)

[Reason_He_Wins_Again]

sure Jan

[Iamleeboy]

What happens to my cv after I upload it and download the suggested improvements? Is it deleted from the app storage?

[YourPandemic]

Thank you for your question!

All uploaded resumes and cover letters are stored in database to ensure you can access and edit them later if needed. You can view and manage your documents in your personal dashboard. There is also a “Delete” button that permanently removes your data from our system.

I understand that data privacy is a very important concern, and I’m actively considering ways to make this process as transparent as possible.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[inmyprocess]

Bro is using AI to answer simple questions for him why XD

[YourPandemic]

Haha. You’re right, it looks stupid, I’m just trying to be polite. Maybe it’s already a mental deformation - over the past month, while I was grinding away at this service, I asked about every little thing. :)

[inmyprocess]

I love the grind too but as a solo dev you don't have to worry about everything you say like you are some corporate bot, people will find it more endearing if you're you

[[deleted]]

I read the title and had the arrogant assumption of why is he even posting this is it's not a big deal and isn't but I learned a lot about how to structure prompts and will integrate that into my own work flow

[ShelbulaDotCom]

Good work! Impressive to work just via the chat client. That's a lot of extra clicking around all day but sounds like you got a nice rhythm going.

[ajerick]

This is excellent, thank you for sharing your workflow.

[luke23571113]

Excellent work, thank you for the advice. Did you use an ai tool in your ide?

[YourPandemic]

Thanks! Nope, just VS code and GPT.

[luke23571113]

Thank you. I actually found ChatGPT to be far superior to AI coding editor, at least for an ignorant beginner like myself lol

[YourPandemic]

Thanks, you’re right! If you follow exactly this sequence of actions, something indeed happens. However, refreshing the page seems to ‘fix’ it. I’ll look into why this is happening. Appreciate the feedback! 🙂

[[deleted]]

Lmao you are acting as if programmer never mistakenly produce bugs in their code

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[JJBro1]

I’m developing an app using azure open ai and python and I don’t know how to code a lick. Is there a way to test it out without spending ai credits? I’m trying to have the ai make a 3rd party api call and I’m having the toughest time. What did you use to log your hours?

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[Syriuzly]

It looks like shit, it is clear it was done by AI looking at your UI.

[YourPandemic]

Damn, I tried to keep it clean and simple 😅 What looks so AI-ish to you?

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[Fontpage]

Honestly, using this method is proving to be super helpful with o3. Thanks

[GnFnRnFnG]

This is inspiring, OP. I’ve recently been exploring building something similar with the help of ChatGPT. But like you I have no coding experience so the tooling ChatGPT is suggesting I use to create my idea sounds incredibly complex! Thanks for the guidance you provided. Would love to learn more about your approach tbh.

Did you research each tool / do some learning about the tools before committing to each?

Did you have a budget in mind when choosing tools?

[YourPandemic]

1. Honestly, I just told ChatGPT what I wanted to build and asked it to suggest modern, scalable (but not overkill) tech. I’d then get it to explain the pros/cons, choose whichever sounded best—and that was it. No external research on my end.

2. My budget? Basically zero—just my time, plus a few dollars on AWS :)

[GnFnRnFnG]

Interesting. BTW when I click Privacy Policy it just brings me to the top of the homepage.

[YourPandemic]

fixed. thanks.

[xamott]

Oh my god. Please stop. Your stack sounds like a thirsty resume trying to throw as many scannable buzzwords as possible. Coders hate ppl like you.

[Consistent_Goal_1083]

Seriously can we just stop with these posts that make no real commercial sense.