# I Built an AI Coding Mentor on a $150 Phone for My Friend Who Couldn't Afford a Laptop

> Source: <https://dev.to/koda2026/i-built-an-ai-coding-mentor-on-a-150-phone-for-my-friend-who-couldnt-afford-a-laptop-2j5i>
> Published: 2026-10-05 03:37:58+00:00

my friend wanted to learn coding.

he didn't have a laptop. he didn't have fast wifi. he didn't have money for paid AI tools.

he had a cheap android phone and a dream.

so i built KODA.

it's a web-based AI coding mentor that runs entirely in the browser. no downloads. no accounts. no credit card.

you open the link, type your question (or upload a screenshot of your error), and it explains the fix in plain language. it even works in tamil, hindi, and other languages.

under the hood, it uses a constitutional AI framework with 10 articles that prevent hallucinations and enforce safety. if the AI isn't sure, it refuses to answer rather than guessing.

i built it on my own $150 POCO C55 phone using Cloudflare Edge Workers. total cost: $0. total size: 22KB. no build step. no frameworks. just vanilla JS and edge compute.

my friend used it last week to debug his first Python script. he didn't need to ask me. he didn't need to google for 40 minutes. he just snapped a photo of the error and KODA walked him through it.

that's the whole point. AI should belong to everyone. not just kids with macbooks.

try it here: koda-aicodementor.netlify.app

built for the Hacktoberfest 2026 Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend. 🎃