Why apps built with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, Replit or v0 break in production, why asking the AI for another fix makes it worse, and what a real fix looks like

The same five problems repeat across AI-built and vibe coded apps. What each one costs you, and how to check your own app for them without being a developer.

The same developer built the same app twice with AI agents, once on iOS and once on Android. The two codebases failed in opposite ways, and one thing failed identically on both.

In the Wikipedia iOS app, the map screen was one class of 2,636 lines. Here is what a file like that costs you, and the fix that is not a rewrite.

Not a checklist and not a pass or fail stamp. The five lenses I score, what I look for in each, and real findings from a public audit of Wikipedia’s iOS app.

A rewrite feels clean, and that feeling is the trap. When starting over is right, when it is not, and how to get the evidence before you spend the money.