Stub

A stub is a placeholder piece of code that stands in for real functionality that isn't built yet, a button that does nothing, a function that returns fake data, a screen wired up but not connected. Stubs are useful while building: they let you sketch a structure, test the parts around the gap, or demo a flow before every piece exists. The danger for a lean founder, especially when building fast with AI, is the stub that never gets finished. AI agents readily produce code that looks complete but quietly returns hard-coded values or skips the hard part, and if you do not catch it, you ship a feature that appears to work and silently doesn't. The discipline is treating stubs as visible, temporary scaffolding, clearly marked, never mistaken for done. Before claiming any feature shipped, you drive it on the real surface and confirm it does the actual work, not that it merely renders without errors.