GuidesAI-Built Apps
What to Do When an AI Coding Tool Keeps Breaking the App
An AI fix loop is a series of prompts where each repair breaks a part of the app that used to work. Stop adding prompts. Write the single path that fails, including what you clicked and what you expected. A developer should change that path once, then recheck the paths the earlier prompts already broke. More prompting is the right move only when the failure is cosmetic and you can still undo the last change.
What the loop looks like
- Login works. You ask for a small change. Login now fails.
- The AI says it fixed the error. The same error is on the next click.
- The explanation gets longer and the app gets shorter.
- You can no longer tell which prompt caused which file to change.
This happens because the tool is guessing the next edit from the latest message. It does not keep a stable list of the rules your app already relies on. A button label is an easy win. A rule about who may update a row is easy to delete by accident.
What to do in the next hour
- Stop prompting. Another pass is how the last working screen disappeared.
- If the tool has history, restore the last version where the main task worked.
- Write five lines: what you clicked, what you expected, what happened, and whether a second user is involved.
- Save the error text exactly. A paraphrase is less useful than the sentence on the screen.
- Do not paste new API keys into the chat to "try again."
What I change, and what I leave
I reproduce the path you wrote down. I change the files that path actually runs. Then I recheck login and the other path that the earlier prompts kept breaking. I do not restyle the whole app unless the layout is the thing that is broken.
You keep the repository. Hourly work is $35. If the broken path is already clear, the quote can be a fixed fee before I continue. If the project has passed the point where a repair is honest, I will say so and stop.
Questions this page answers
Which tools get stuck like this?
Any tool that edits the project from a prompt: Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0, Claude, and ChatGPT. The brand matters less than the pattern. The model is changing files it does not fully hold in mind.
Should I roll back before hiring someone?
If you have a saved version that still did the main job, go back to that version and stop. Send that version, plus a note of the one thing it still cannot do. A pile of half-applied fixes is harder to rescue than an honest earlier build.
Can you fix it if I do not know the framework?
Yes. Tell me what you clicked and what went wrong. I need the project files or access to the tool's export. You do not need to name the framework.
Keep going
Want this applied to your workflow?
Hourly work is $35. A fixed fee is a custom quote after we define the scope.