My chart broke on day one, not at scale
A line chart that vanished for anyone with only a few days of data. The cause was a zero-height Y axis turning coordinates into NaN. Here is the measured behavior and the small normalization layer that fixed it.
TestFlight External Testing or Phased Release: Where a Solo Developer's Time Actually Pays Off
When you ship a Rork-built app to other people, you can recruit external testers or let a phased release absorb the risk. Here is how I split my limited time between the two, based on where distribution actually stalls and which three areas still deserve pre-release checks.
Four Countries, Not the World: Checking Which of My Six Apps the September 30 Deadline Actually Touches
Android developer verification goes live on September 30, 2026 in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Here's how to decide from your own install data whether that date is urgent for you, and what actually blocks indie developers.
The same wallpaper appeared twice in my catalog — measuring perceptual hash thresholds across 324 images
Four approaches to image catalog deduplication measured end to end: SHA-256, dHash, a hue signature, and a block signature. dHash alone scored 0.9% precision. Here is why perceptual hashes collapse on smooth images, and how the ground truth turned out to be the thing that was wrong.
Sunsetting an App Well — Designing the Path from Update Freeze to Full Shutdown
What to do with an app whose revenue no longer covers its server bill. A three-stage decision table, a CDN-based sunset flag with TypeScript implementation, a data export path, and the practical order for winding down auto-renewable subscriptions.
When Rork Max's Two-Click Submit Stalls, Tell Which Layer Broke
Rork Max's one-click install and two-click submit fold the complexity of iOS shipping into four hidden layers. When the abstraction leaks and your submission stalls, this map helps you tell which layer failed and fix it yourself.
Your AR Furniture Is Gone by Morning — Persisting Placements with ARWorldMap
AR apps generated by Rork Max lose every placed object on relaunch. Here is the design that fixes it: when to save an ARWorldMap, how to encode custom anchors, how to handle the relocalization wait, and what to do when relocalization simply never lands.
Regenerable Zones in Rork Max Code: Keeping the Freedom to Rebuild
Generated code carries an invisible asset: the option to throw it away and rebuild it. Every hand edit quietly expires that option. Here is how I track it with a ledger and CI checks across six live apps.
Implementing App Clips with Rork Max — delivering the core of your app the moment someone scans a code
Building on the native Swift that Rork Max produces, this note walks through the 15 MB App Clip budget, receiving the launch URL, and handing state off to the full app.
Will Your Real Name Appear on the App Store? Deciding on a Developer Identity Before You Publish
What Apple and Google actually publish about you as an indie developer — seller names, address disclosure, EU trader rules — and practical ways to limit exposure before you ship.
The Termination That Never Shows Up as a Crash — Reading JetsamEvent in Rork Apps
Crashlytics is silent, yet reviewers write that the app closes by itself. Most of the time the OS killed it for exceeding its memory limit. Here is how to read JetsamEvent reports and design an image-heavy app's memory budget from measured values.
Answering the New App Store Age Ratings — Field Notes From Updating Several Live Apps
Notes from re-answering the updated App Store age rating questions across live apps, covering the new 13+/16+/18+ tiers, the four new question categories, setting a higher minimum age, and what it means for apps you ship with Rork.