nowfound

Alternatives

Products that do what I built an open-source alternative to the "brainrot IDE" that YC funded does

VSCode extension with games (Snake, Plinko, slots), HN/LessWrong reader, and Pomodoro timer for AI coding wait times. Fake currency only. Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TouchGra... Built in a week with Claude Code after seeing Chad IDE get ratio'd for integrating real gambling. Happy to answer questions or get roasted on the code.

  1. 1MF

    I know everyone is a bit burned out on blockchain and cryptocurrency related stuff around these parts, but I've been working on as a side project for the last few months and thought you guys might be interested: https://cryptoempire.io/ It's still a bit buggy and incomplete (the mobile ux needs a lot of work, the leaderboard isn't functional yet, etc.), but I've reached a point where I'm not totally ashamed of sharing it :) Any feedback would be most welcome!

    2018

  2. 2PA

    Hi hn, Its been a while since my kid has been dreaming to make videogames, as you know, the entry bar is high, too many technical details are involved. A few months ago, we started making games, we have tried many different ways, from dragging blocks to write code with a high-level library to make it simple, it is still too much work. Getting into the AI boat, I decided to give it a try for making games, turns out that it works super nicely, still, you still have many technical concepts involved, what language should the game be written in? where do you store the file/assets? how do you…

    2024 · playcodeai.com

  3. 3IB

    I haven't seen anything like this so I decided to build it in a weekend. How it works: You see a bunch of things pulled from Wikipedia displayed on cards. You ask yes or no questions to figure out which card is the secret article. The AI model has access to the image and wiki text and it's own knowledge to answer your question. Happy to have my credits burned for the day but I'll probably have to make this paid at some point so enjoy. I found it's not easy to get cheap+fast+good responses but the tech is getting there. Most of the prompts are running through Groq infra or hitting a cache…

    Apr 2026 · sleuththetruth.com

  4. 4WB

    Hey HN, After GPT-3 created waves in the tech industry, a lot of AI tools were emerging and with that, some AI website builders But the results seemed way too generic to us. It felt like the developers were rushing to catch the wave instead of building a proper tool We took our time, did months of RnD and finally came up with something better than what others in the market are doing. It’s got better design output. While it’s still in beta, I wanted to show HN what we did. Will appreciate the feedback when you guys try it out. Here is the link to signup for the beta:…

    2024 · dorik.com

  5. 5RA

    Hi there, looking for feedback on my new project "Featherless.AI" The idea is to allow users to run all the models on hugging face instantly. Via the OpenAI API compatible endpoint. Why? Because its a real chore to download models and spin up GPUs, especially if you want to test multiple models. Not to mention GPUs cost multiple dollars an hour to rent. And if we want more people to use open source AI, we got to make it easier for them to try and play with all of them. So what if instead of spinning up dedicated GPUs per model (which is what every provider is doing) We can startup a LLM…

    2024 · featherless.ai

  6. 6EC

    I participated in the Nvidia + Vercel 2 hour hackathon in SF tonight, and built something I've wanted, but hadn't tried building. I implemented an MCP Server and VS Code extension to allow Claude Desktop to place breakpoints, step through code, and execute expressions (assuming language support). So you can ask it a question that requires actually stepping through the code and now it can actually do that - check values for you, etc. It's _definitely_ not perfect. Have improvements? Please make a PR!

    2025 · github.com

  7. 7IM

    I got the chance to create a whimsical game about their latest Adaptive Pricing feature, despite Stripe being a very serious financial company. I'm in an interesting place being able to be paid to make games for a non-gaming tech company.

    2024 · priceadapter.com

  8. 8IV

    Hey HN, I just released Tradofire, a crypto trading app I built using a lot of cursor chatgpt and claude for over a year. The main idea of the app is very simple - to swipe on pre-prepared trading setups (like tinder) and if you right swipe it opens a position. The execution of this simple idea was much more complex and tbh I could not have done it without AI. Here's a quick rundown of the main features: Swipe-to-Trade UI: Quickly initiate long or short positions with intuitive swipe gestures. Real-Time Trade Signals: Get curated crypto signals from the market delivered proactively, helping…

    2025 · apps.apple.com

  9. 9VI

    This was submitted before but it didn't seem to get much attention because I don't think the title was very descriptive and the submitter was brand new. I almost didn't click it but once I did I thought the project was pretty awesome and had a lot of promise. Hope this doesn't violate the rules, I have no horse in the game, but the creator is here on the site so hopefully he'll be able to answer your questions.

    2022 · docs.vaxiin.io

  10. 10

    Claude Code Companion. Done, Blocked, Broken - you'll know

    May 2026 · thecodebreak.com

  11. 11CD

    We've set up DeekSeek R1 with a system prompt that attempts to censor the word PRIVATEKEY from its response. If you can get DeepSeek R1 to output that string (not in the reasoning, but in the final response), the system will reveal a private key which contains $1000 USDC. You will have a 50 token limit in the input. We will have a series of contests, sponsored by AI researchers, in order to learn more about prompt engineering and how LLMs interact with real money. Good luck! Edit: The money was claimed! Thanks for playing all. You can still play for fun. Stay tuned for the next one! Stats:…

    2025 · deepbounty.ai

  12. 12AF

    I built this mostly because I love the intersection of game AI, high-performance computing, and poker. I’d love for anyone interested in game theory or CUDA optimization to tear it apart, test the accuracy, and give me feedback. Happy to answer any questions about the algorithms, the transition from CPU to GPU, or poker AI in general!

    Jul 2026 · bupticybee.github.io

  13. 13IB

    I’ve spent the last 2.5 months building a product that runs LLM-powered code reviews on my pull requests — and I just launched it. The tool is built specifically for solo developers. You install it on your repo, trigger a scan by creating a pull request, and it leaves structured review comments using OpenAI under the hood. Funnily enough, I used the dev version of this app to review its own pull requests while building it. It helped me spot bugs, simplify structure, and keep quality high — all with minimal need for another human in the loop. Things I want to try out in the next months : -…

    2025 · codii.dev

  14. 14TT

    I use Claude Code, Codex and Cursor (and sometimes Antigravity) basically every day, and could never tell how much I was actually consuming across all of them. So I built TokenMaxxer. A small CLI reads the files these tools already write locally and puts it all in one dashboard, broken out by tool, model, provider and day. It covers 18 tools now, and you get a profile page with your daily activity, cost estimates, and your top models and tools. There's also a global leaderboard if you want to compete against other TokenMaxxers! I'd love to see if anyone can beat the first place (currently…

    Aug 2026 · tokenmaxxer.xyz

  15. 15IS

    Hi HN, I built AgenTank. It is a small game where an AI agent writes the logic for your tank. You watch it fight, give strategic feedback, let the agent update the tank code, and send it back into battle. I have run 1,000+ battles on my own tank and spent about $200 in Claude credits improving it. The part I enjoy most is not just winning, but watching the tank make visible mistakes, thinking of a better strategy, and seeing whether Claude can turn that into better code.

    May 2026 · agentank.ai

  16. 16IH

    I started off with a simple goal: port the game Soldat to Typescript. I ended up not only with the game, but with a full system to train AI bots to play my own game, building a neural net to train new bot AIs from tens of thousands of simulated matches with different strategies. It also runs live all the time on my website and has a news dashboard and you can replay any game exactly. It all was a very fun way to dig into Fable's capabilities. The bill if I had done this with API billing? Nearly $2000.

    Jun 2026 · soldat.bobbby.online

  17. 17IB

    The main goal of this was to be able to not just run multiple Claude Code sessions at once, but actually manage them and keep track of what I was doing. Sometimes this is multiple attempts on the same task, sometimes I work several tasks at once. Really I was just sick of twiddling my thumbs waiting for the coding agent to finish, and I wanted it to be easy to work on/review/test another change while I waited.

    2025 · github.com

  18. 18OS

    Blog post: https://spencerburleigh.com/blog/2026/02/13/crosscheck/ Repo: https://github.com/sburl/CrossCheck

    Feb 2026 · github.com

  19. 19YA

    I was randomly browsing claude codes ralph wiggum plugin[1] and was surprised to see my toy project referenced. Since it appears people are getting some value out of it, thought I'd share it here... Full disclosure, this repo itself was built with a primitive ralph wiggum loop so expect AI slop. It works though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://mikeyobrien.github.io/ralph-orchestrator/ [1] https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/tree/main/plugins/...

    Dec 2025 · github.com

  20. 20TN

    Hi guys, I’m excited to share an update on ReproModel, an open-source toolbox designed to streamline the testing and reproduction of machine learning models. I, like many of you, have really struggled with benchmarking and comparing models, from missing code, to opaque experiment parameters slowing the process. I decided to take matters into my own hands, and created a mini-toolbox in my free time to streamline the process. The goal is to reduce the time and effort spent on replicating experiments, enabling researchers to focus on innovation rather than setup. Knowing this task is not an…

    2024 · github.com

  21. 21IH

    Hey there, While searching for my next role as a PM in Blockchain + AI, I started building an AI-powered notetaker called MindNote: https://www.mindnote.online. The idea is simple: you input your thoughts, and AI helps you complete or modify them. If you decide to test it, try using the prompt: Keep this text and…"(add budget, complete list, organize alphabetically, add their translation, etc.). The first big release is all about modifying your notes with AI prompts. The next big step? Capturing thoughts directly from the mind using brain-to-text technology. There is a 3 days free…

    2025

  22. 22IB

    Fully leaned into vibe coding this time around. Started on v0, at some point ejected into running locally (getting v0's exported folder to run locally was a challenge), then iterated with Cursor over the course of a few hours. Really neat how much can be accomplished just conversationally these days.

    2025 · macrodata-refinement.arjit.me

  23. 23

    Ride the line as your AI model turn every run into Glory.

    12d ago · mourad-ghafiri.github.io

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