Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)

david927
7 hours ago
157points
What are you working on? What have you been curious about lately?
599 comments

Comments

sunsetSamurai1 minute ago
I got laid off recently and finally decided to dedicate some time to learn Rust, I started to work on an an idea I've head for a while, to create a game server to play Thai chess inspired by lichess.org, in fact, I plan to use several of their assets.

I'll use Rust for the backend even though it's probably an over kill, but it's the best way to learn for me, doing something with the language. I have some of the front end move logic and board done, I plan to start working on the API soon, after I finish a Rust book I'm reading. Here's some of the code if anybody is interested: https://github.com/thaichess-org.

taylorfinley6 hours ago
I got laid off at the end of April and have been building my own personal dream tool since, it's a skeuomorphic carpentry simulator with an agent MCP. You start with real wood specs and a shop full of miter saws, router tables, table saws and the like. Think of it like Sketchup but no extruding rectangles.

It's been really fun to build with. Agents can create parametric procedures so e.g. stick framing becomes a simple function call for the next agent, building a flywheel. There is full agent-human parity in every surface, so there is a human UI for the procedures too.

Every operation is yaml, so agents pick it up pretty quickly. Agents can also file feature requests when they reach for a tool that doesn't exist. You can export to 3d printing files, video walk-through, step files, get a BOM and a cut plan, view your project in life-size with AR. There is a notion-like interface for authoring build guides... a lot going on. If you're a woodworker/software engineer you might enjoy it.

You can add the MCP to your agent of choice, send a picture, description, sketch or whatever; say "build this with Sawdust"

https://sawdust.diy

muh_gradle2 minutes ago
This is sick.
purplemoonx6 hours ago
Amazing resource if it takes off.

I wanted to build a bed frame recently and imagined software where I could choose lumber from a list and visually assemble the bed frame in the software how I see fit, choose stains, flourishes - then go order the wood and have it cut. At that point it's like taking home an IKEA bed, except of way higher quality materials and to your exact design spec.

So

> Real SKUs, a real BOM you can send to any lumberyard; understand exactly what you need down to the last nail.

Is especially interesting, it sounds like you could basically do that with this software.

Turning the woodworking process into code to be automated by an LLM is pretty ambitious, and is the part I am most skeptical about. Of course, if you get that right (plus adoption) it would be unbelievably huge.

taylorfinley6 hours ago
I have a parametric bed frame procedure already! It's demoed in an example project here https://sawdust.diy/share/60d515eb-ca3f-559e-994f-56164dd1fc... click 'open the workshop view' to see the full UI, make a new one using the bed frame procedure in the procedure tab (or add MCP and ask the agent to use the procedure).

And you can customize it beyond the existing design by asking an agent to modify it, e.g. "let's use walnut 4x4s and 2x4 slats", "I don't like how the corners come together, can we make it more like traditional joinery?" Also, staining is a supported procedure (it's very useful for e.g. coloring geodesic dome struts by strut type), you can just ask the agent to stain the pieces with whichever color you like, I'm sure you could even use a named stain you want to use like "Minwax Dark Oak" and get something pretty close.

purplemoonx4 hours ago
Perfect - that’s it!

Impressive stuff. Actually more impressive than I even imagined.

“Fits in my SUV” you are a mad man! Love everything about this site. I might actually do it now haha - no more excuses.

appplication3 hours ago
Love it, I had a similar but probably worse idea a few years back while woodworking. I agree the issue with essentially all CAD and sketchup etc is it forces you to work with primitives that are different from your real world ones. Extruding shapes as you said, instead of actually milling lumber and working in common known dimensions.

I also suspect there’s a fairly finite number of sane join primitives, you can have rabbets, dados, dominos, dovetails, pocket screws, etc. These could be experimented with digitally against an existing design. And your tool availability could determine what you can do.

And of course cut order and assembly is just a DAG and can be generated from geometric constraints of the actual design.

variodot6 hours ago
Have been building something non-CAD too in the space which is also aligned with carpentry. This looks really neat and can't believe how similar the functionality is. Would be great to chat!

https://shopspec.io/app

taylorfinley6 hours ago
Shopspec looks very cool! Love to see people building in this direction, we have at least validated for each other that the demand for a tool like this has a minimum bound of at least 2.

Feel free to reach out! Email in profile.

a_c3 hours ago
Hey, looks like we both have a thing with 3D, love it! Mine is about bouldering, check it out https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234599
onion2k5 hours ago
Cool project. A couple of years ago I was gifted "One-Plank Woodworking Projects" by Andy Standing for Christmas (which is great). It's a book of plans for things you can build with, obviously, one standard plank of wood. That might be a decent addition to the filters: rather than project type or tools available, what wood does the user has to hand.
zahlman4 hours ago
> skeuomorphic

I keep seeing this word. Every time, I have to look it up; I marvel at the fact that we have such a cool word describing a complex but interesting topic; and apparently forget it again. And then I never find a situation where I can use it.

HolyLampshade4 hours ago
I don’t say this lightly, and confess I haven’t dug in very deeply yet, but this is one of the most hot shit uses of ML I think I’ve stumbled across yet.

If this does what I think it does (and I confess I’m a goddamn idiot still when it comes to anything involving ‘agentic’) this is honestly pretty damn amazing.

bedstefar6 hours ago
Wow! Gotta try that out! I'm from outside the USA, hopefully it'll work too with SI units
taylorfinley6 hours ago
SI units are intended to be supported, but I am unfamiliar with commonly-available wood sizes in non-US markets so it is thoroughly untested and likely a bit of a disaster. Bug reports are appreciated and can be filed by clicking the lightbulb in the chat window or asking an agent to file it via the MCP.
helloakariq4 hours ago
Nice to see unique applications with Agents. Well done!
tacitusarc4 hours ago
This is wonderful. Does it support complex types of joinery?
taylorfinley4 hours ago
I recently added a chisel and hand saw tool and started working on adding more complex joinery types. Right now any of the frontier models can easily handle half laps and pocket jig miters and the like. You can chat with the model and have it develop a procedure for any kind of joinery if you give it the right resources, if you do so I would love it if you ask the agent to nominate it as a community procedure.
RagnarD5 hours ago
I encourage you to turn this into a real sellable product.
dgellow5 hours ago
The homepage doesn’t load well on iPad
taylorfinley4 hours ago
Thank you, I will take a look! I think my poor little vps is getting a bit of the hn hug of death, too :)
ebbi4 hours ago
This is really cool!
marking-time4 minutes ago
I am working on a CLI tool that will build a static web page for a small brick and mortar store. The software is FOSS and could be useful for the small store that has a lot of foot traffic, but is under served by many of the big tech offerings. The idea is that foot traffic can be increased by using a QR code placed on a banner outside the store directing them to the website that can display sales and types of items that the store offers. Pleases check out the build log for details of my progress.

https://codeberg.org/Marking-Time/MicroStore

nonethewiser3 minutes ago
A tabletop adventure game generator. Instead of tediously rolling for disconnected content in limited ways (enemy to fight, loot after fight, etc), you generate an adventure and print it out. Random events can be connected, enemies can be elegantly scaled. You discover a rich world rather than tediously generate a low fidelity one.
asim6 minutes ago
Mu - Tools for Agents. An MCP server and web app that provides real time access to news, markets, weather, video, places, search, etc. It's sort of extension of a previous idea I had to put all the key tools and services behind a single api and access token. I don't know that it's quite there yet. The idea might change. Still looking for feedback.

https://micro.mu https://github.com/micro/mu

Also have an agent harness and service framework in Go

https://github.com/micro/go-micro

brynnbee1 hour ago
My two biggest projects are:

https://www.idlequest.net/ - a from-scratch recreation of the 1999 MMORPG classic EverQuest, featuring a real-time MMO server written in Go, a 3D game browser-based client built with Babylon.js, and the clasic UI recreated using React. You can play it both as a regular MMORPG but also in "idle mode" where it basically plays itself. This had up to 70 players online at once a while back which was really cool, though its popularity is in a bit of a lull right now. There are still tons of bugs and stuff that isn't fully implemented (and balance issues) but it's still fun for most people who have nostalgia for it.

https://www.newyokosuka.com/ - an unofficial Shenmue MMO experience. Based on the 1999 Sega Dreamcast game Shenmue, it's playable entirely in your browser! It's basic world exploration with forklift shenanigans, some basic dialogue systems, and a basic combat system test, but I'm about to push an update that includes all cutscenes and story progression as well. The story part is taking a bit of time because I'm having to mold it to fit in an MMO context. But it's a fun project to work on and the Shenmue community loves it so far.

willmeyers18 minutes ago
Wow I think like 12-13 years ago I wanted to make an EverQuest clone in the browser like every teen game devs MMO dream. Great work.
brynnbee9 minutes ago
I wanted to make MMOs when I was like 12 years old and everyone on the internet told me it was impossible and it took millions of dollars and a team of 200 people and crazy levels of knowledge to even do the basics. Which, to be fair, was sort of correct at the time. However, it's fun to make not just one but now have 4 seperate MMO projects I've made huge amounts of progress on! And granted it's massively helped by reverse engineering original assets and reusing existing game designs - but conceptually it's entirely possible, and I've done as much for a project I haven't released much public info on yet. I'm also running 3 of them on a $15/month lightsail server - I put a huge emphasis on client-side work to make it as lightweight for the server as possible. This makes cheating easier but I'm not really worried about that since these are sort of glorified demos and not something I'd ever financially benefit from.
sech842032 minutes ago
This is AWESOME Brynn! Incredibly impressive. This was my favorite game back when, spent so many hours fighting orcs and selling goods at the bazaar up until someone called the house and I was kicked offline. I'm excited to dig deeper into your recreation. Huge props.
brynnbee20 minutes ago
Thanks! It's been a labor of love for over a year. Maybe closer to two, I sort of lose track.
pryelluw25 minutes ago
Sweet mother of god, this runs on my phone browser. Excellent work!
brynnbee21 minutes ago
The Shenmue one does! Also the pool game in the jazz club should work well on mobile. The pool game is available as a small stand-alone website here too, complete with Shenmue assets: https://luckybreak.app/

I've had people play IdleQuest on tablets and Steam Deck but I'm fairly certain it would be horrible on phones.

lappet22 minutes ago
I have been working on and off on https://www.whichtemple.in

- it is a collection of ~ 2700 temples across India, with images sourced from wikipedia

- it shows you a random temple each time you visit

- it has a map view of temples across India

So this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am trying to build a catalogue of all temples, starting with India, and expanding on to the rest of the world. The focus is on temples originating from Indic religions like Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.

I have personally discovered many cool temples that I have never heard of, but I am struggling on how to gamify this. Feedback welcome!

Bnjoroge5 hours ago
Lots of fun projects being listed. I'm working on Preloop(https://preloop.dev), a way to run your unmodified Github Actions locally or self-hosted in isolated cross-platform microvms(uses smolvm which uses libkrun vmm).I got frustrated with Github Actions reliability and inability to run or test my workflows locally so i re-wrote the runner and reverse-engineered the control plane so it follows the exact runner protocol the offficial runner does. Each job runs in a microvm that boots in 400ms from a packed image. Also supports a way to pause on every failure so you or your agent can immediately shell at that point, fix and retry(in a new environment) to verify. Also supports the full DAP protocol so you can interactively step/forward/investigate context at each step/job.

Try it out: https://github.com/preloopdev/preloop

mcapodici4 hours ago
That is an amazing idea. I can imagine this getting popular. It could be used for faster local dev loops and porting GHA to other servers. I imagine for data/compute residency, cost, performance, vm types etc.
Bnjoroge3 hours ago
Thanks! I'm glad it resonates. Still pretty beta, but I'm hoping this can be a good alternative when Github goes down, which unfortunately has been a bit too often, with as minimal of a lift from the user side. And of course, making it easier for agents to fully drive ci.
SOLAR_FIELDS3 hours ago
a bold attempt, how does it compare with https://github.com/nektos/act which has been the de-jure project in this space? Act has never been in my opinion super great, but it's also been several years since I've checked in to revisit the project.
Bnjoroge2 hours ago
Thanks! Here's a more detailed comparison: https://github.com/preloopdev/preloop/blob/main/docs/preloop.... The TLDR is act(much like Forgejo/Gitea) try to behaviorally emulate how your workflows run in docker containers. Preloop uses the exact same protocol the official runner does and runs each job in microvms. I try to match not only te request/response bodies, but down to the job/step log/annotations/conclusions level, so you could essentially use the official runner against preloop, and it would work as it would communicating with Github. Preloop is also designed to be agent-native from the ground up so an agent can drive the entire CI in real-time and debug like we do. Forgejo has the closest compatibility among the three in practice, and if you are fully off Github, I think it's a good enough choice. Here's a more detailed description of some things we do to ensure compatibility: https://github.com/preloopdev/preloop/blob/main/docs/conform...
popupeyecare15 minutes ago
I’m working on ProofLeague, an app for keeping workout promises with friends:

https://proofleague.com (iOS, web app and android)

You create a private league, set a weekly goal (workout 3x a week), and tap Start when you begin a workout. Friends get notified and then have 30 minutes to ask for a selfie. If nobody asks, the workout counts automatically. There’s no public feed or strangers involved, just a small group keeping each other honest.

My friends and I had been doing a version of this via text message for years, but this app has been great. I am in 4 "leagues", all of them get notified at once and then I only share my selfie once and it automatically goes to any group that asks. It's motivating and hilarious to see people working out.

It's free and would love for you guys to try it and set up a league with friends or family. Please send me any feedback at amit@proofleague.com

meandave5 hours ago
I've been building the most advanced automotive diagnostic app on the market

I used to be a mechanic, and spend a lot of my free time working on project vehicles, motorcycles, tractors, trucks etc. I wanted a tool to track the tasks I needed done, then a way to easily access VIN info for parts search, then I DMV records, and finally built an iphone app to scan the OBD2 diagnostic codes and hook them up to a custom ai diagnostic prompt.

It's been a blast to work on, I need to focus on marketing it and get some users that aren't close friends, but it's been serving my purposes this summer so far.

I've seen nothing with anywhere close to this depth of diagnostic reporting.

https://crewchief.cc https://apps.apple.com/us/app/crewchief-auto/id6760673109

theseagin15 minutes ago
It looks really impressive. Well done. Wishing you luck with it.
ibejoeb5 hours ago
Does it have any make-specific features? For instance, I've used vcds for VW/Audi since it has better reporting than generic odb2 code readers.
meandave3 hours ago
At the wire level, no: it speaks generic OBD2 (ELM327), so it sees powertrain codes and standard PIDs. It won't talk to every module on a VAG car the way VCDS does — no ABS/airbag/body modules, no adaptations or coding. If you need that, VCDS stays on your bench.

Where it is make-specific is the interpretation layer. The code database includes manufacturer-specific DTCs for the 10 major makes, and there's per-model data down to the generation level — known failure patterns, which codes are common on which engines. So a P0171 on an E46 gets read in the context of "this generation eats intake boots and DISA valves," not a generic lean-code writeup. The AI report is conditioned on the exact year/make/model/engine, which is where most of the diagnostic depth comes from.

That being said, I'm continually expanding support, it really just depends on what sort of barriers I run into with these bluetooth scanners. For certain types of diagnostics (large truck / Buses etc) I'll likely need to make a separate desktop app that connects directly wired.

Melatonic1 hour ago
Would love to see more Subaru support
rlam2x515 hours ago
Looks great, I would like to try it out. Can you recommend any OBD2 adapter? I’m driving a Ford from 2019.
meandave4 hours ago
the Vgate works good, there is a spec for the OBD2 Devices over bluetooth, so any of the cheap ($20-$30 range) should work fine, I haven't found one that hasn't connected to the app yet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XGB4873?th=1&tag=crewchief-20"
helloakariq4 hours ago
Nice one! Is the iPad app a full fledged iPadOS app or just a browser for now?
meandave4 hours ago
I haven't targeted for ipad yet, I should test soon, I have an ipad mini that would be great to use, since I keep manuals on there anyways.