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Tutorial: build TipJar end to end

One project through the whole build: an onchain tip jar with its own token, live on the web.

4 min read · 9 sections

The Quickstart got you to a drafted spec. This tutorial goes the whole way: you'll ship TipJar, a page where fans tip creators onchain, with a live URL, generated docs, and its own token rehearsed on a testnet. One project through the whole build, in order, each step handing its work to the next. That handoff is how all of Modus fits together.

Give it an afternoon the first time. You'll spend most of it watching agents work and making calls; your starting credits cover everything here, including the testnet deploy.

Shape the idea

Sign in, and in the composer type:

TipJar: a page where fans tip creators in ETH or USDC on Base. Creators sign up, claim a page, and see a dashboard of their tips. Tips settle straight to the creator's wallet, no platform custody. Later: a $TIP token that unlocks perks.

Spec will push back: who's the first creator, why onchain at all, what v1 leaves out. Good answers to have ready: start with one real creator you know, "onchain" because tips settle to the creator's wallet with no middleman holding funds, and v1 skips fiat payments and multi-chain. Notice the maturity panel filling in beside the chat as you settle these.

Create the project

Hit Create project. In the modal: project name TipJar, product name left empty (it defaults), and read the brief: it should mention Base, direct-to-wallet settlement, and the creator dashboard. Edit it if the distillation missed something you care about; the whole build starts from this text. Confirm, and you land in the hub with PRD unlocked.

Draft and approve the spec

Open PRD. The Architect asks a few intake questions (audience, chain, custody), then streams the spec in section by section. While it writes, watch for the two sections that matter most for TipJar:

  • Scope should exclude fiat and custody. If it doesn't, edit it or hit Ask Modus to refine with "v1 is crypto-only, tips settle directly to creator wallets."
  • Pages should list a landing page, a public creator page, and a creator dashboard.

When it reads right, hit Approve. The Token Launcher unlocks, Design and Code now read from the approved spec, and from here the hub reads like a build in motion:

Generate the screens

Open Design. The kickoff card shows what the run will draw on: your approved PRD, a design system, the Brand kit. Pick a design system from the catalog, or describe a look: "warm, generous whitespace, feels like a thank-you note, not a bank."

Hit Generate and watch the three pages stream onto the canvas. Each gets a quality check; if the creator page comes back with a warning, click into it and Iterate: "make the tip button the only strong color on the page."

Build it

Open Code. The design panel already lists your generated screens. First turn:

Build the landing page and the creator tip page from the design handoff. Wire the Tip button to a wallet connect and an ETH transfer to the creator's address.

The agent writes the app while the preview hot-reloads beside it. Iterate in small turns: one change, check the preview, next change. Every turn ends in a git checkpoint, so a wrong direction is one click of restore, never a lost afternoon. Use the element inspector to point at anything you want changed instead of describing it.

Ship it

Hit Deploy in the hub's top bar, or just tell the chat to ship it. Connect Vercel (a one-time token paste on the Integrations page) and deploy: Modus builds the app, pushes it, and hands back a live URL. Your gateway key and env vars go along automatically; there's nothing to copy. Open the URL. That's TipJar, on the internet.

Rehearse the token

Open Token Launcher. Tell it you want a creator token: it'll detect your experience level, offer presets, and for TipJar the fair-launch style on Base fits: no taxes, small wallet limits, trading off at deploy.

Approve the spec and let it generate, compile, and audit the contract. Then deploy to Base Sepolia, the free rehearsal network, and read the deploy report: contract address, verified source, your owner controls.

Mainnet, liquidity, and locking are the same conversation later, when TipJar has users; see Launch a token the safe way.

Let the docs write themselves

Open Docs and hit Generate all docs. README, architecture, API, all drafted from the code you just shipped. From now on, when a code change makes one stale, it gets flagged as drifting instead of quietly lying to the next reader.

Where you are

A live product, an approved spec, generated screens, real code with version history, docs that track drift, and a token rehearsed on testnet, one conversation at a time. From here: