Coder's Vyas: $17 AI build cost hides who really caught the bugs

Rahul Vyas kept a running token meter across 36 build-log parts of ClinicLive, a clinic app built in three seasons with Claude Code, and totals it at roughly $17 in API spend: $6.20 for the original Blazor Server app, $3.60 for a redesign, $7.20 for a MAUI companion app. The more telling number sits inside that total. Of 63 logged mistakes across the build, screenshots caught 21 and a human reading or looking caught 19, while the compiler or a failing build caught 10 and automated tests only 4. Vyas is explicit that the $17 excludes the reviewing, screenshot-checking and emulator-poking that actually found most of the errors, meaning the headline figure understates the real cost of the work by an unmeasured amount.