Why AI likes freedom to build
and how some systems are restricing it too much
I have built several applications with AI so far.
And all of them suffered from one main issue: Setting up authentication systems with a system already in place.
These systems are supposed to be fast, effective and help you to manage your authentication system fast and efficient.
You know, these systems, that ask you to login, logout, signup, reset passwords and get magic links sent to you. Those systems that make sure that your data is not shared with others and that you only see what is going on with your data.
Authentication systems in short.
The Authentication Systems that did not work
The toolset for product builders is full of Authentication or short Auth systems like Auth0, NextAuth, Clerk, Supabase Auth built in with its database.
When you first build a product and ask AI to build an authentication for you, the recommendation almost always is: "start with a pre-built one, you save time!"
But what if that is true for the moment, but really annoys you later?
For example, with Supabase, you set it up with a click of the button almost. Done.
Same for the other ones. I tried them all at one point in time. Easy setup, you determine with which tools users can log in, email integration, and you send confirmation emails and are done.
It is easy, fast, good.
But with one big problem
It struggles with Password Resets. It struggles to tell you what is wrong. and it struggles to help you troubleshooting.
With other words, it is a big black box.
You share the logs with AI and AI is lost. No idea how to handle it. And then you go into experimentation mode - ok, maybe the key is broken, or the setup is wrong, maybe the CORS settings are wrong, or a page for password reset is missing, or or or. You are getting lost. And AI cannot help you, as there are almost no error codes or very specific code snippets you can investigate.
And you, when you are a programmer, you may solve that problem fast. But for all of us, who are not, that is a nightmare.
You are stuck. You have to go into the code and the docs and everything yourself.
Doable, but painful and time-consuming.
For that reason, I suggest a self-built authentication system for you, when you build with AI. Ai is fast at it, it supports you along the journey, you can build some super cool stuff in there and make it beautiful how you want to and it works as you imagine it.
It may take a bit longer, but the results are for sure great!
What is your learning? Did you experience something similar? Love to hear your thoughts and tips how you built it in a way that it works well for you.