Quick look at Claude Code-generated Bhagavad Gita React Native and Expo app (no coding by author)
Recently a Bhagavad Gita AI generated iOS app with no coding required from app creator was covered in Indian news media outlets. Yesterday, 7 Feb. 2026, I had a look at one such media article which led to me cloning the app's GitHub repo and run the app on dev server for web and Android.
‘I built a Bhagavad Gita App for $319 in 4 days (no coding required)’, https://www.financialexpress.com/business/news/bhagavad-gita-app-built-with-ai-prompts-for-319zoho-founder-sridhar-vembu-says-coders-should-consider-other-livelihoods/4133291/ , Updated 6 Feb. 2026
It linked to the X post on the iOS app: https://x.com/AnishA_Moonka/status/2019321410699817458, Feb 5, 2026. The post said:
- Author only described what he wanted in plain English to Claude Code
- Claude Code 'wrote everything' (developed the app).
- Codex reviewed the app.
- $200 Claude Max subscription
- $20 ChatGPT Pro subscription
- $99 Apple Developer fee
- App is called 10minutegita
I don't have an iOS device and so I could not try out the app.
I had read somewhere that the app was a React Native and Expo app and IFIRC that it was Open Source.
Another X post from the author provided the GitHub repo link for the app.
I decided to have a quick look at the repo. ...
While the source code has been shared, it is released under a restrictive license that does not permit free reuse. As such, it cannot be considered open source in the usual sense, unlike projects released under permissive licenses such as MIT.
The Bhagavad Gita data it uses is baked into the app as JSON files and that data is also proprietary. This data seems to be associated with Swami Chinmayananda (explained later in this post).
I cloned the repo and tried it out. Some notes about that:
- npm install needed audit fix for 2 vulnerabilities. After that, 0 vulnerabilities.
- npm run start: gave some warnings but app showed up on web - http://localhost:8081/
- Vertical scrollbar appeared for many paragraphs if window width is reduced to mobile size (or even larger than mobile size).
- The bottom of the Gita page contents app has an attribution notice - "Inspired by the teachings of Swami Chinmayananda".
- The app has a fixed viewing structure - verses per day as per its selection.
- One cannot go to next day without marking earlier day as complete.
- No choice to go to specific chapter or verse.
- Even after marking a day as complete, it allows user to only see preview of the next day. Beyond that, data seems to be completely locked. Quite strange!
- The repo does not seem to have the Claude (AI tool) prompts used. That's a big missing thing here, IMHO.
- The git commits mention Swami Chinmayananda as the author. The commit messages are descriptive.
- Ran it on my Samsung M21 Android phone using Expo Go. A warning/error was shown about Android push notifications of some package removed from Expo Go.
- The Android app seems to work in Expo Go - similar to web app but better as paragraph vertical scroll issue is not there.
- The repo includes Jest-based automated tests under a __tests__ directory. These may be standard React/React Native unit or snapshot tests, running via npm test. They validate code-level behavior rather than real user interactions (unlike Playwright-style end-to-end tests).
Closing thoughts
If Claude AI prompts used were provided and linked to associated commits in the repo, it would have given a clearer picture of what was done by Claude AI, especially if Claude AI tripped up on some points and the author had to fix it with additional prompts.
Codex review contributions are not described. It would have been great to see what Codex review pointed out and how Claude fixed it.
Did Claude do all the testing using Jest? Was there additional testing done manually by using app in simulator and real device? I think testing is a critical part of any software lifecycle, whether for web or mobile applications. While unit testing provides useful validation at the code level, it cannot replace end-to-end testing that exercises real user actions and app flows. In the case of this Bhagavad Gita app, the testing visible in the repository appears limited to unit-level Jest tests and does not include end-to-end user interaction testing. This makes manual testing on simulators and real devices an essential step before any release, as otherwise there is a significant risk of user-visible and potentially embarrassing bugs.
I just saw an interesting video about using Claude to generate a React Native and Expo math learning app: Claude Code Tutorial for Beginners: Build App with AI (2026), ~22 mins by Mikey No Code, 25 Jan 2026. The author clearly describes the prompts used. It would have been really great if the 10minutegita author had also shared his prompts.
The app’s feature set is relatively limited when compared to a general-purpose Bhagavad Gita app. It does not provide the ability to navigate directly to a specific chapter and verse, nor does it offer a choice of multiple translators or commentators. Instead, the app structures the presentation of Gita verses around a time-based progression, limiting what is shown to the current day, the next day (preview), and possibly past days. This time-oriented structuring may be a deliberate design choice by the app’s author, who may not have intended the app to support free navigation across chapters and verses.
Even if the app creator would not have done any coding, he may have been advised about what technologies to ask Claude to use - React Native and Expo.
The generated code is quite readable and the commit messages are very descriptive. That is a strong positive feature as if manual technical review/update becomes necesssary for bug fixes or incorporating some features, that may be possible without much difficulty.
Overall, it is impressive to see what Claude Code can generate. As it has a free tier, I plan to try it out by doing a 'prompt-along', if I may use that term, with above mentioned Claude Code tutorial video. I thank the 10minutegita app author for posting about the app and for sharing the source code of the app publicly on GitHub.
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