I'm not a "real developer."
I built this whole platform with AI anyway.
Hi, I'm Benjamin. I don't have a computer science degree. For years I thought that meant the things in my head would stay there. Then AI changed the rules, and I built this entire platform, feature by feature, with it.
So I built the room I wished existed, a place for the rest of us: people turning ideas into real products with AI, shipping in the open, without anyone looking down on how we build.
People call it "AI slop." What they miss is that AI hands you nothing. You still bring the idea, the taste, the thousand small decisions. The tool is leverage. What you make with it is yours.
Free forever, no ads. Browse everything without an account.
What is DevConnect?
DevConnect is a free community for people who build real products with AI. One place to share what you're shipping, meet builders who get it, and sell what you make. No gatekeeping about how you built it. Free forever, no ads.
Your projects, your stack, what you've shipped. One link that proves what you can build, not what school you went to.
Post what you're building with AI and get curiosity, not contempt. Real feedback from people building the same way.
Rooms around Cursor, Claude, a model or a stack. Set the rules, run it your way. You own it.
Also here: voice rooms in every community, a marketplace for what you make, remote dev jobs from junior up, and an app-tester exchange for store releases.
A certificate that someone can check
A free track assessed on the work you submit rather than on hours attended. Every certificate carries a number and a public page anyone can look up without an account.
Studying, and want to bring this to your college? The Campus Ambassador role is open now. Part-time, remote and unpaid: experience and a reference rather than a salary.
Talk, don't type
Some things take twenty messages, or two minutes of talking. Every community has voice rooms now, and you can call anyone you both follow — straight from their profile or a chat.
Your mic stays off. Nobody can hear you.
You can speak. Your camera stays off.
Camera allowed, off until you turn it on.
Recent from the feed
Asking About Progress
I am overcoming the steps but how will I know my progress, for example , first one was 6 minutes but how will I understand I already did it , it should be green icon when I will complete one task.
Backend Internship Introduction
Hi, I'm Ahmad, a student focusing on Python backend development. I'm taking this track to build verifiable API projects and strengthen my portfolio for remote freelance opportunities.
RunsOn Mac — Weekly Dev Update
Sep 20–27 This week was heavily focused on the backend, data reliability and launch infrastructure of RunsOn Mac. ⚠️ = still in progress / not fully implemented or verified yet ⚙️ Three Major New Backend Systems Three larger backend systems were designed this week to make RunsOn Mac much more scalable and reliable. ⚠️ Validation & Consensus Engine A central system for validating benchmark data before it influences performance results. It groups comparable tests, detects duplicates and outliers, checks plausibility and builds consensus from independent evidence instead of trusting individual results blindly. ⚠️ Automatic Game Enrichment A provider-independent system for identifying games and completing missing catalogue information automatically. Unknown or non-Steam games can receive an internal RunsOn Mac ID and be enriched with metadata and artwork from multiple sources while duplicate detection and uncertainty handling protect the database. ⚠️ Autonomous Benchmark Research Crawler A controlled research pipeline that can discover public Mac performance reports across the web and convert them into structured benchmark evidence. Every observation keeps its source/provenance and passes through validation, deduplication and strict limits before it can become usable data. These systems are designed to work together: Research → Enrichment → Validation → Comparable Evidence → Confidence 📊 Benchmark Confidence Architecture Alongside those systems, the new Confidence architecture is being developed. - ⚠️ Confidence based on source quality, independent observations, consistency, completeness, recency, validation and outliers - ⚠️ Separate Confidence values for Community and Web Benchmarks - External reviews and Steam ratings remain independent from performance confidence - Expanded structures for benchmark sources, devices, evidence and validation The goal is simple: RunsOn Mac should show not only what the available performance data says , but eventually also how strongly that conclusion is supported by evidence . ⚖️ Legal & Launch Infrastructure A significant amount of work also went into making RunsOn Mac ready for an actual public release. - Terms & Conditions / AGB infrastructure added - Regional Terms handling prepared - Download flow connected to the applicable Terms - Legal and release-related website structures expanded - Preparation for direct distribution of the Mac app through RunsOn Mac - ⚠️ Final legal content and release checks are still being reviewed 🌐 External Data Infrastructure - Expanded support for public/web benchmark sources - Separation between Community Benchmarks, Web Benchmarks, External Reviews and Steam data - Improved source attribution and filtering - Additional automated tests for benchmark and external-review handling - ⚠️ Further pipeline integration and validation still in progress 🎮 Game Reports & Big Picture View - New detailed game view directly inside the catalogue - Game reports now replace the card area instead of opening over the entire interface - Search, filters and navigation remain accessible - Benchmark count, tested devices, latest tests and evidence sources integrated - Community and Web results can be separated - ⚠️ Final layout and responsive behavior still being refined 🗃️ Catalogue & UI - Catalogue expanded to 87 games - Steam ratings, review counts, prices and discounts integrated - macOS availability separated from actual performance data - Game cards received a smaller visual and structural refresh - Improved handling of games without benchmark data 🖥️ RunsOn Mac App - Continued preparation of the native Mac app - Intel + Apple Silicon - macOS 11+ - Website download flow prepared - ⚠️ Distribution, final integration and release preparation continue 🔧 Technical Cleanup - Continued frontend modularization - Accessibility and keyboard-navigation improvements - Expanded automated testing - Responsive layout fixes - Design and copy audits - General catalogue and report cleanup --- This week moved RunsOn Mac significantly further toward the core idea behind the project: Not just telling you whether a game runs on Mac, but building a transparent evidence system for how well it actually runs. Current catalogue: 87 games Target launch: October 15
Questions we answered properly
Shipping, hiring, reviewing AI-written code, finding people to build with: the honest answers are scattered and half of them are out of date. Every source on these pages was fetched and checked before it went live, and nothing goes up that fails that check.
Yes. External TestFlight testers need the first build of that version approved in Apple’s beta review before invitations go out. Internal testers can start earlier, but outside testers cannot.
Yes, Apple still requires valid demo credentials and review details for beta apps that need sign-in or account access, and external TestFlight builds still need beta review first.
Yes. GitHub says Copilot Chat on github.com, Copilot Chat in GitHub Mobile, and Copilot cloud agent will relaunch as one unified experience with one policy replacing the separate policies.
Yes. GitHub changed the Copilot code review default from Lite to Balanced, and that default can be set at both organization and repository levels for unconfigured reviews.
Project of the Week
Post what you built this week with the showcase tag. Until Wednesday night the community votes and, more importantly, replies: comments count double. The winner takes the featured spot at the top of the feed for three days.
How to build with AI without shipping slop
The difference between a real product and "AI slop" isn't the tool. It's the decisions you make around it. Six things that actually matter:
- Own the idea before you prompt
AI is great at "how," useless at "what" and "why." Know what you're building and who it's for. That part is still yours.
- Read every line it writes
If you can't explain what your code does, you don't own it, you're renting it. Ask the AI to explain until you actually understand.
- Ship small, ship real
One feature that works beats ten that half-work. Slop is what happens when you generate faster than you can check.
- Test it like a user, not a demo
AI writes the happy path. The bugs live in the edge cases you have to go find yourself.
- Keep the taste human
Naming, flow, what to leave out: that's judgment, not generation. It's why two people with the same tools ship completely different things.
- Learn the fundamentals as you go
You don't need a degree, but understand what you keep reaching for. Every "why did that work?" you chase makes the next build more yours.
A small team. A lot of AI. No VC, no roadmap deck.
DevConnect is built and run by me, Benjamin, with a small team who own big parts of it with me. Not a room full of engineers, just a few people who learned to build with AI and refused to wait for permission. If something breaks, you're talking to the person who built it.
"People kept telling me I'm not a real developer. Maybe not. But I built the thing you're looking at, and I built it for everyone who's been told the same. That's who this is for."
Frequently asked questions
Come build in the open.
It's free. It always will be, and there will never be ads.