Hi HN! We launched Codebuff last week, and it gave us a fun idea to try: Twitch plays Codebuff.
We rigged up Twitch chat to control an old laptop of ours by sending Codebuff commands. Any chat message prefixed with ‘>’ is interpreted as a command for Codebuff. We’re starting with a blank web app running on localhost. So if you say “> Make the header spin”, then Codebuff will modify the css to make it happen. Codebuff can also run any terminal command (I hope you don’t brick our laptop haha).
Yesterday we tested this out with our community and they successfully got Codebuff to add a map of the US (via installing some package that it found), add all the state capitals as red dots, and draw the shortest path through the capitals. They also built a little synthesizer together.
Maybe this could create a new category of open source, where a bunch of people synchronously create whole apps together by guiding an AI with natural language input? It’s exciting to combine the creativity of a crowd of humans with the raw ability of a coding agent. It’s also just fun to create with strangers and take an app in wildly different directions!
We’ll be here for a couple hours, feel free to pop on by and add some fun stuff to our website! Or maybe troll everyone, iono.
