Solo Builder's Guide

You’ve built things with Cursor, Replit, or Lovable. They worked — until they didn’t. Projects stalled at 15–20 components. Context vanished between sessions. The AI kept forgetting what you’d already decided.

GSD 2 solves this by treating the AI as a junior developer who follows a structured process — not a magic autocomplete that guesses what you want. This guide walks you through adopting that process as a solo builder.

Sections

1. Why GSD 2 The context window ceiling, what context engineering means, and why structure beats prompting.

2. Your First Project A complete walkthrough from blank directory to working milestone.

3. Brownfield Reality Starting GSD 2 on an existing codebase without burning it down.

4. The Daily Mix Choosing between direct commits, quick tasks, and full milestones — every day.

5. What You Write vs What GSD Writes The files you maintain and how they shape every AI session.

6. Controlling Costs Token profiles, model routing, and keeping spend predictable.

7. When Things Go Wrong Failure modes, stuck detection, and recovery steps for common problems.

8. Building a Rhythm Weekly cadence, retrospectives, and the graduation path.