How I Built a Journal App as a Solo Developer with Flutter + Firebase + Claude AI

Six months ago I was a solo developer with an idea: build a journaling app that uses AI to give people genuine reflections on what they write, not generic motivational quotes, but responses that actually engage with their words. Today that app is live on Google Play. It's called Eventide: Journal & Mood , and I built every screen, every animation, every backend function myself. Here's the full technical story, the decisions that worked, the ones I'd reconsider, and what I learned shipping a real product alone. The stack Layer Choice Framework Flutter (latest stable) Language Dart, strict null safety State management Riverpod + riverpod_generator Navigation go_router Backend Firebase (Auth + Firestore + Cloud Functions) AI Anthropic Claude API via Firebase Cloud Functions Subscriptions RevenueCat SDK Local storage Hive Charts fl_chart Design Material 3, Google Fonts (Lora + Inter) Why Flutter I needed iOS and Android from a single codebase. React Native was the other contender, but Flut