A developer with no Rust knowledge built Ferrite, a native Markdown editor, using only AI-generated code. The app now has over 800 GitHub stars and uses just 72MB of RAM idle, a stark contrast to bloated tools like Notepad. It features native Mermaid diagram rendering and a split-view interface, all written in Rust without the author writing a single line of code manually.

The development relied on a specific workflow: using Claude via Cursor for coding, Task Master for task management, and Context7 for documentation. The author describes what works—like standard project setup and bug fixes—and what breaks, such as handling edge cases and performance optimization, which required human guidance. Transparency about the AI-built nature was added after the project gained traction.

Ferrite holds up against established tools like Obsidian and Typora on performance benchmarks. The author plans to extract the Mermaid renderer as a standalone Rust crate. This project demonstrates a practical, if imperfect, application of AI in software development, proving that a functional product can be shipped without traditional programming expertise, focusing on "works" over perfection.