How hard can it be to send a postcard?
summary
Claim: sending a real postcard from phone is surprisingly hard because of brittle APIs, fulfillment costs and app store rules. Built a working app and server using Lob $0.87/postcard for print fulfillment, a Node backend with OpenAPI plus Swift OpenAPI-generated clients and a CLI, and CI/CD via Xcode Cloud CI/CD and ephemeral PR stacks. Solves reply via an App Clip QR reply flow that acts as a mailed gift‑card entitlement. It works functionally but margins are tiny and long‑term API fragility demands heavy integration testing and abstraction.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 8:31Origin story and teaching
- 13:28API strategy and challenges
- 20:03Payment models and business decisions
- 25:17App Store review guidelines
- 28:52Automation and CI/CD
- 33:30OpenAPI and type sharing
- 36:40Replying to postcards
- 38:47App Clips and QR codes
- 43:20Assignment and conclusion
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