Let me confess something: I’m a marketing person. I live in landing pages, analytics dashboards, and campaigns — not code editors. But one boring day, I wondered: “What if I could build my own Instagram-like app without knowing how to code?”
That’s when I decided to try something totally out of my usual lane. I teamed up with AI — specifically ChatGPT — and a backend tool called Skapi. I gave ChatGPT a simple prompt to build a photo-sharing frontend in HTML. Then I spun up a backend in Skapi (no coding there either), grabbed the integration script, and asked ChatGPT to insert it into the site. Bam. It worked.
I had a functioning web app. People could sign up, log in, upload photos, and see them in a gallery — all running on static HTML and a backend I didn’t even write.
Here’s the breakdown of how I, a total non-dev, built my own mini Instagram using just AI, no-code tools, and a big chunk of curiosity.
When Pretty Designs Aren’t Enough
I started my journey like any modern marketer would — by playing around with some fancy new tools.
I explored Google's Stitch tool. And honestly? The results were stunning. You get crisp, clean designs that look like they came straight out of a professional dev shop. What’s even more impressive — these tools give you actual code. For a web designer, that’s a dream. You save hours of dev time just translating visuals to code.
But here’s the catch: I’m not a web designer. I don’t want “just code.” I want a working application — something that’s more than a pretty face.
So I thought: “What if I take this code from Google Stitch and ask ChatGPT to attach a backend?” Smart, right?
Well, kind of.
When I gave the Stitch-generated frontend code to ChatGPT and asked it to wire it up with backend logic (user login, photo uploads, etc.), it didn’t quite go as planned. Instead of giving me a plug-and-play solution, ChatGPT gave me code review feedback — like I was in some kind of AI-powered hackathon. It started suggesting improvements, structural changes, refactors… everything except the working integration I wanted.
At that point, I had two options:
- Spend hours reverse-engineering and tweaking AI-generated design code to make it backend-ready
- Or just let ChatGPT generate the entire frontend from scratch, in a way it could understand and build upon.
Guess which one I chose?
I went all-in with ChatGPT. The results weren’t going to win any design awards, but you know what? It worked. Buttons did things. Forms saved data. Photos uploaded. That was my goal.
Backend? Not From ChatGPT, Thanks.
So here’s the challenge I ran into: the backend.
While ChatGPT is a beast at writing HTML, JavaScript, and even faking a bit of logic — you really don’t want to ask it to write backend code. Trust me. Not because it’s lazy, but because it’s unsafe and unpredictable.
You never know:
- Where your data will be stored
- How long it’ll be kept
- Or if it will even work the next time you refresh the page
And let’s be real — AI still can’t spin up a full backend with authentication, file storage, and secure data handling that actually runs without a human dev massaging it into place.
So I pivoted.
Instead of trying to brute-force backend logic through AI, I turned to a tool built for this exact moment: Skapi — a no-code backend API service.
Skapi is like an express backend buffet for non-devs:
- No setup, no hosting, no terminal black magic.
- I signed up, clicked around, created a service...
- And bam — it gave me pre-written backend code snippets for user auth, file uploads, database queries… all ready to go.
My favorite part? I didn’t even have to understand the backend code. I just took the provided snippet, handed it off to ChatGPT, and gave it the clear prompt.
And it did. Seamlessly.
That was the unlock. That’s when my static site turned into a real app.
In the next section, I’ll show you exactly how I wired it all together.
Training the AI: Feeding ChatGPT Some Skapi Brains
AI tools like ChatGPT don’t automatically “know” how to use every third-party service, especially newer or niche ones. And most of the time, they don’t read full websites — just small chunks at a time. So if you want it to properly integrate something like Skapi, you need to feed it the right context.
Basically: you’ve got to train your AI assistant.
Here’s how I did it, step by step:
Go to skapi and click the Docs button.
That takes you to the developer documentation — the treasure chest of everything Skapi can do.Find the link that says Full API Documentation Download.
This gives you the complete Skapi documentation in one go. No clicking around 50 different pages.Download the docs as a Markdown (.md) file.
Since ChatGPT works best with readable text and doesn’t crawl full websites, Markdown is perfect.
Just right-click anywhere on the docs page and choose “Save as…” → select MD file.Now upload that file into ChatGPT.
And give it the prompt.
Once I did that, it was like watching an AI go from amateur intern to backend ninja. I gave ChatGPT a simple instruction:
“I will give you the markdown document file of a backend API called Skapi that you can use to build a full stack application on static html files. Read the whole api docs first then I will give you instructions on what to build. Here is the file”
ChatGPT actually understood the Skapi API to generate frontend logic wired up to a real backend — with secure user auth and file uploads.
Get Started with Skapi: Creating Your First Project
Now that ChatGPT knows how to use Skapi, it's time for you to jump in.
- Sign up or log in at skapi.
- From the dashboard, click My Services.
- Give your project any name and click Create.
- You'll land on your project's dashboard — this page contains your project's unique credentials: Service ID, Owner ID
These are the keys that connect your frontend HTML app to your Skapi backend.
Ready to build something real? Copy your credentials and paste them into the following prompt. Let’s roll.
“Build me a simple photo uploading application in multiple static html pages. form action should point to correct page destinations that work when an html file is opened on a local computer. The starting page should be index.html. there should be pages for signup, login, page to upload and view already uploaded photos. My Serivce id and Owner id is: (copy here credentials, I marked with red on the latest screenshot where they are);”
Here’s what I’ve got.
Let’s download the ZIP file. And be sure to Extract ZIP file before trying it out.
We see our pages – let’s open Index one.
Testing the Full Flow
Here it is — the moment of truth.
At this point, we don’t have much in terms of design. It’s barebones, just raw HTML and minimal styling. But that’s fine. We can always ask ChatGPT to make it prettier later. What matters now is: does it actually work?
Let’s test it step by step:
Click Sign Up
Enter an email and password — any fake credentials will do for now. Hit submit.You’re in!
Instantly, the site redirects to an Upload a Photo page. This is the magic moment. Select any image from your device and upload it.Done? Awesome. Welcome to your Photo Gallery.
Just like that, your uploaded photo appears in a live gallery. No refresh needed. No dev console. It just… works.
But wait — let’s double-check the backend. Is this just frontend smoke and mirrors? Or is the data really there?
Hop over back to Skapi and log into your dashboard.
Click on Database in the left-hand menu…
And there it is — your photo file, safely stored in the database. Mission accomplished.
It’s not just a static site. This is a full-stack, working web app — built without touching a single line of backend code.
Conclusion: AI + Smart Tools = Your Next App
So there you have it — a clear, battle-tested guide forged through many late-night prompts and experiments. Feel free to follow this exact process and build your own mini Instagram (or literally any other app idea) using AI + Skapi.
What I’ve learned? You really can build a fully working web app with almost zero coding knowledge — as long as you:
- Use AI smartly (don’t expect it to do everything)
- Combine it with the right no-code tools like Skapi
- And most importantly — write clear, specific prompts
If you noticed, once I knew what to ask, I needed just two solid prompts to make the whole thing work. No dev team, no hours of debugging, no complicated setup. Just smart prompting and smarter tools.
So go ahead — follow the steps, build your thing, and let us know how it goes.
Tag us @skapi_api , share your results in the comments, and don’t forget to follow our socials — more guides are coming soon!
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