I built a free LinkedIn audit tool in 48 hours with zero React experience — here's what I learned

I'm a Senior Program Manager who kept telling myself I'd post consistently on LinkedIn. I never did.

Not because I didn't have things to say, but because I had no system. And every AI tool I tried produced content that sounded nothing like me.

So I built Pillar.

It audits your LinkedIn posts first, hook strength, authority stage, and content pillar gaps, then generates a full month of posts in your actual voice. No blank page. No generic output.

The build itself was the first proof of concept. Zero React experience. Full SaaS with auth, Stripe payments, and AI generation in 48 hours using Claude Code.

A few things I learned shipping this:

• Next.js 16 and Clerk don't play well together — downgrade to 15

• Stripe env vars with newline characters silently corrupt your price IDs

• Vercel's 10s function timeout will kill you — batch your API calls client-side

The product is live at usepillar.net. Free audit, no signup required.

Would love feedback from anyone who's tried to build a content habit on LinkedIn — does the audit-first approach resonate?