Mike Ryan (@mikeryan.dev)

Personal Software (build an app in 4 hours) · Web Dev Challenge S2.E8 Think you can top what the pros built in this episode? Join the Web Dev Challenge Hackathon and create your own MCP-powered app made for an audience of one: you. Use Postman for your chance to win $500 cash and be featured on Postman’s community and social channels. All the details, rules, and submission info: https://codetv.link/wdc/hackathon Submissions close September 22 at 11:59 PM PT — start building today. Contest open worldwide to participants 18+. By entering, you grant Postman the right to feature your submission on our website, blog, and social channels. ## The Challenge *As developers, we can often identify lots of areas in our own lives that could be improved by a custom app — if only we had the time to build them.* These days, AI coding workflows and tools like MCP servers make it much more feasible to build custom software for personal use only, so we’re challenging you to do exactly that. Wish you had an app that would turn your wifi off at 8pm so you’d actually get to bed on time? What about a chore schedule that’s exactly tailored to your family situation? Maybe a calendar that tracks only new book releases that are part of series you’re in the middle of reading. Make it practical; make it silly; whatever you do, make it personally valuable to you. ## The Tool: Postman **Your app must use Postman as part of the build.** Postman (https://codetv.link/postman) is the most popular tool out there for working with APIs. In this challenge, you’ll want to look into their suite of tools for designing and building MCP servers and agentic workflows: - MCP Servers: https://www.postman.com/explore/mcp-servers — tons of available MCP servers that you can use - Generate an MCP Server: https://www.postman.com/explore/mcp-generator — Postman has tools that allow you to generate your own MCP server from any public API - Postman AI Agent Builder: https://www.postman.com/product/ai-agent-builder/ — tools including LLM prompt testing, agent workflow designer, and tool generation - The Public API Network: https://www.postman.com/explore — this is a *huge* collection of public APIs that you can use as part of your build *THE DEVS* - Craig Dennis - Shirley Wu - Erin Mikail Staples - Elvis Kahoro - Mike Ryan - Brian Love *THE ADVISORS* Sterling Chin Jason Lengstorf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Get early access to new videos, exclusive bonus content and other perks, and join me in building a happier, healthier, friendlier web dev community! https://codetv.dev/support ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapters: 0:00 In this episode... 0:30 Welcome + the challenge 0:40 Required tool + meet your advisor 4:08 Rules of the challenge + planning phase starts 4:32 Meet Team Galactic Chalkstars + their app idea 6:17 Meet Team Curly Bois + their app idea 8:01 Meet Team Tuff + their app idea 9:37 Build phase starts 11:02 Progress check ins 16:04 Late stage check ins 20:21 Team Curly Bois app demo 27:11 Team Galactic Chalkstars app demo 31:01 Team Tuff app demo 37:38 Reflections on the challenge 38:42 Outtakes and credits https://youtu.be/gAeLTcxF-0o?si=N-Vg4DC6BZ_uiiks