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

Summary

• [A concise, bulleted summary of the project and the problem it solves.]
• [Mention the core value proposition.]

Details

Notes

• [Why HN commenters would love it (quote users if possible).]
• [Potential for discussion or practical utility.]

We must not include any introductory text. Start with first project title.

We need to read the discussion and identify pain points.

Let's scan the discussion for pain points.

Comments:

• PopFlamingo: building a site for discovering first names, frustrated with existing websites being cluttered, not smooth, like translation of DB queries, filters upfront, paginated results. They built interactive full-screen wall UI, infinite browsing, minimal filters. So pain point: name discovery sites are clunky, need better UX.

• MomohNobert: working on pronto.stream, messing with MCP, building world news system for decision making and surveillance; also interested in formats more efficient for agent communication than JSON.

• YoucefHQ: 2026-27 soccer season just started; highlights site like Netflix for soccer highlights, from YouTube, free, no ads. Not a pain point but a product.

• continuational: typed functional-imperative full stack language with IDE support: firefly-lang.org. Not pain.

• spottedmarley: looking for land in Wyoming to build AI apocalypse bunker.

• karim79: working on AI to design AI apocalypse bunkers, fearful agents will escape.

• kilroy123: building a tool site that has all the tools you'll ever need, slowly adding each week.

• piazz: Anki extension for AI-generated text, speech, images; making extension flexible and intuitive.

• lapkaaaa: dropped a neural net Jane Street puzzle.

• ponyous: AI modeling for 3D printing; building models for 3D printing.

• jamesponddotco: asked about best models for 3D printing.

• steven123: Build one of the best emoji sites.

• gavmor: decompiling obscure 1998 computer game using LLM agent skill; building skill from papers on reverse engineering; wants reproducibility; dealing with many odd techniques, configurations, loras, utilities; experiment pipelines exploded; Concourse not large enough or high-level enough.

• ipunchghosts: Software to promote live music and drink specials so I don't have to check dozens of Instagram accounts to find out what's happening tonight. Built site parsing toolkit; easy to add new locations.

• le-flaneur: putting photography online; organising photo archive; metadata extraction pipeline.

• primaprashant: TUI in Go to manage agent skills; doesn't like putting many agent skills in .claude/skills/ and letting agent figure it out; keeps skills in separate git repo and copies them; TUI replaces manual ls, cp -r, rm -rf with keystrokes.

• mickeyvanolst: collection of native AI/ML operators for TouchDesigner on macOS; wants more support for macOS.

• vmsp: framework for web, ios, android native development (flypath); Server-Driven UI; OTA updates.

• itake: Trying to reduce doomscrolling IG and FB usage; created getnoloop.com to block the feed on iOS.

• gtadesktop1: building own x86_64 UEFI OS that looks like Windows Vista but behaves like Linux; troubles with keyboard, booting from real hardware.

• mkdcrl: Cricket, a visual scripting plugin for Figma inspired by Grasshopper for Rhino.

• dbz: cost models and coupon ladders for businesses; helps restaurants learn exact cost per menu item, margins, profit per dish via PoS integration; part of GetSetReply suite for SMBs.

• chidog99: better change management process for production deployments and SOC 2 audit evidence; approvegate.io.

• autotune: built something similar but toy project.

• djdule: real estate management system with AI agents to automate mundane tasks.

• mhog_hn: building d5s.tech using own software to automate own company (the boring bits).

• mattvr: Optimem, spaced repetition learning app, user-friendly alternative to Anki or more effective Duolingo.

• stuartmemo: Raygum - a nice place to keep your music brain.

• gburgett: local AI-adoption consultancy for SMBs; physically show up at office; differentiator: personal touch vs cold outreach slopification.

• garymiklos: OtaKit.app, cheap fast simple CDN-based OTA updating tool for Capacitor apps (and soon React Native).

• thedetailsguy: Pick Up, reading companion to make tracking books feel personal and fun; track what you’re reading, notes, reflections, stats, bookshelf; over 4k MAU.

• Findecanor: designing retro-style gaming mouse for retro-computing.

• Metricon: Verse Draft: all-in-one writing studio for fiction writers to keep details for universes while crafting stories, novels, movie scripts, TV series, stage plays; also card game for story ideas.

• enjoyyourlife: searchforjobs.app; trying to add resume creator using right keywords for job posting; more data visualizations; more job posting sources to scrape.

• wklm: Web bluetooth for iOS via Safari extension; better than any 3rd party browser.

• rspoerri: lexera, kanban board with full multimedia and document include support that saves to markdown, exports to marp to manage teaching materials; also editor for agentic programming.

• spudlyo: fabulae.orbilii.com - Latin language audiobook with enhanced pedagogical details; XML, XSLT, etc.

• wreet: laid off; built personalized news site using news APIs with AI summaries; HN frontend with skeleton.dev.

• chaosharmonic: tweaking bot to doomscroll job boards; parsing schema.org JSON-LD; researching vanilla Web components, view transitions, Signals; making crawlers less framework-heavy; need to distribute local-first app across multiple clients.

• bryanhogan: self-tracking app and Astro Web Starter Template; customizable, local-first; habit tracking, health logging, journaling.

• Arubis: building hyper-local services as love letter to community; using LLM harnesses.

• Broomsday: sends emails/SMS night before street sweeping parking restrictions; schedule block-by-block; people get ticketed $50 a pop; city has email-only notification service that's free but poorly supported and interface sucks.

• HailPass: notify-before-pain service integrating open weather services (NWS/NOAA) plus hail-specific ML model to give 5-10m heads-up before damaging hail.

• antilimit: storytelling app for kids called Tella Stories; builds stories out of kid's actual life, family, friends, dog, things they're nervous about; wants high-level digital experience; leverages multiple AI services.

• jjcm: makefaster.dev; spent $10k running autoresearch loops on 200 top github repos with frontends to speed up frontend performance; distilled into leaderboard; built autoresearch loop that applies learnings to repo; works with existing claude/cursor/codex sub in custom TUI.

• inoop: reverse-engineering neural network accelerator inside Chinese WiFi camera SoC; used Claude to reverse-engineer hardware, implement ONNX compiler/runtime; now have $20 AI smart camera.

• 0gs: working on a really cool word game with TUI graphical style like roguelike; automated "fun factor" testing; get bugs/frs that sound like real player feedback.

• sobellian: online guidance solver for KSA (Kitten Space Agency); control rocket from command line; uses successive convexification.

• koeng: genomic DNA purification automated for yeast; wants to build yeast genotype -> flavor converter; engineer yeast strain for favorite flavors.

• cristodcgomez: solanda.federa.social: new UI library made with zero dependencies (native web components); works with vue/react/angular/svelte; concerned about AGPLv3 adoption.

• jamesponddotco: planning Tamagotchi for readers (Tome & Tail): little black dragon in pixel-art library on ESP32-S3 with small round AMOLED screen; reads alongside you; influences appearance/habits; offline playable with optional sync to Booklary; C++.

• tomjuggler: comment on ESP32.

• alphaBetaGamma: studio-galois.com: math/science/CS-inspired jewelry; lambda calculus based pieces; quantum computing circuits; DSL to describe jewelry, interpreter to produce CAD files.

• richardreeze: 52-part series about retention.

• eager_noob: iterating to shrink binary size of tree-sitter based Vi/Vim compatible tags generator; trying to avoid affecting developer experience.

• heychristoph: Don, a work companion; helps set goals, remind breaks, check in, judge, celebrate.

• aleda145: open sourced kavla, SQL canvas; website; missing analytics agent for local version; wants fully local LLM setup.

• eszett: experiments on offline-first CRDT.

• tomjuggler: ChonkyBlox: block-based coding using AI on backend; each block has LLM instruction; can code using cardboard cut-out blocks, photo to import, generate Arduino firmware, compile flash to ESP32; docker web app; aiming for South African education sector.

• BrunoBernardino: wife and I continue to work on private, paid, ad-free, personally customizable search engine: Uruky; signup no info, random account number, PoW captcha for 2h free; can choose among many search providers; after 12 months paying customer gets source code (BUSL -> AGPLv3); main challenge: discoverability and outreach ethically.

• vortégne: little daily puzzle games for friends, polished one for public release: picobble.com; font generation system inspired by Iosevka.

We need to propose exactly 3 concrete viable project ideas that solve pain points, frustrations, or unmet needs expressed by users.

We should pick pain points that multiple users mention or that are clearly expressed.

Potential pain points:

1. Name discovery sites are clunky, need better UX (PopFlamingo). Could propose a better name discovery tool (maybe building on that idea but maybe more generic). But they already built one; still could propose something else like "Name discovery with AI-driven suggestions and mood boards". However, we need to propose something that solves pain points expressed. The pain is that existing sites feel cluttered, not smooth, like translation of DB queries, filters upfront, paginated results. So a solution: an immersive, infinite scroll, AI-powered name explorer with natural language search, minimal UI. That's basically what they built; but we could propose a similar tool for other domains (e.g., baby names, pet names, brand names). Could be a generic "semantic name explorer". But maybe better to pick other pain points.

2. Software to promote live music and drink specials so you don't have to check dozens of Instagram accounts (ipunchghosts). Pain: need to aggregate live music events and drink specials from multiple venues; currently need to check many Instagram accounts. Solution: a site that parses venue Instagram/Facebook pages and aggregates events, with ability to add new locations quickly via site parsing toolkit. They already built something (nittanynights.com, indyafterfive.com). But we could propose a more general tool for event aggregation across platforms.

3. Managing agent skills: primaprashant wants a TUI to manage agent skills, not like putting many skills in .claude/skills/ and letting agent figure it out; wants to keep skills in separate git repo and copy them; TUI replaces manual ls, cp -r, rm -rf. So pain: managing many agent skills is cumbersome. Solution: a TUI or GUI for managing agent skill libraries.

4. Real-time notifications for local services: Broomsday (street sweeping notifications) and HailPass (hail alerts). Pain: need timely hyperlocal notifications for municipal services (street sweeping, weather hazards) to avoid fines/damage. Solution: a platform for hyperlocal alerting with customizable rules.

5. Managing personal knowledge: piazz's Anki extension for AI-generated content; mattvr's Optimem spaced repetition app; wreet's personalized news site; bryanhogan's self-tracking app; etc. Pain: learning and retention, need for personalized, AI-assisted content generation for flashcards, note-taking, etc.

6. Reverse engineering and decompiling games: gavmor wants reproducibility, dealing with many odd techniques, configurations, loras, utilities; experiment pipelines exploded; Concourse not large enough or high-level enough. Pain: managing complex reverse engineering experiments with many configurations.

7. Web Bluetooth for iOS: wklm built a Safari extension for Web Bluetooth, better than any 3rd party browser. Pain: lack of Web Bluetooth support on iOS.

8. Agent communication formats more efficient than JSON: MomohNobert interested in formats more efficient for agent communication than JSON.

9. AI modeling for 3D printing: ponyous; wants to generate printable models via AI.

10. Cost modeling for restaurants: dbz wants to help restaurants learn exact cost per menu item, margins, profit per dish via PoS integration.

11. Change management and SOC 2 audit evidence: chidog99 wants better change management process for production deployments and SOC 2 audit evidence.

12. AI adoption consultancy for SMBs: gburgett wants local AI-adoption consultancy that physically shows up at office.

13. Reading companion: thedetailsguy's Pick Up.

14. Job board scraping and resume keyword optimization: enjoyyourlife's searchforjobs.app.

15. Latin language learning with enhanced audio: spudlyo's fabulae.orbilii.com.

16. Storytelling app for kids: antilimit's Tella Stories.

17. Self-tracking app: bryanhogan's dailyselftrack.com.

18. Hyperlocal services: Arubis.

19. Font generation system: vortégne.

20. Block-based coding with AI: ChonkyBlox.

We need exactly 3 ideas. Let's pick three that address clear pain points and are viable.

Potential ideas:

Idea 1: Hyperlocal Notification Platform for Municipal Services (combining Broomsday and HailPass). Pain: users need timely alerts for street sweeping, weather hazards, etc., to avoid fines/damage. Current solutions are fragmented, poorly supported, or require manual checking. Provide a platform where municipalities can publish schedules and alerts, users subscribe to specific blocks or areas, get SMS/email/push notifications. Could also allow users to create custom alerts (e.g., trash pickup, parking restrictions). Monetization: charge municipalities for premium features, or charge users for SMS beyond free tier.

Idea 2: Agent Skill Manager TUI/GUI. Pain: developers working with AI agent frameworks (like Claude, Cursor, etc.) have many custom skills/agents; managing them manually (copying files) is tedious. Provide a tool to list, install, update, remove skills from a centralized repo, with versioning, dependency management, and integration with popular agent frameworks. Could be a TUI like primaprashant's sei, but more polished and framework-agnostic.

Idea 3: AI-Powered Live Music & Drink Specials Aggregator. Pain: users want to find live music events and drink specials without checking dozens of Instagram accounts. Provide a service that scrapes venue social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) using AI to extract events, normalizes data, and presents in a unified calendar/map. Users can follow venues, get personalized recommendations. Could also allow venues to submit events directly. Monetization: charge venues for premium listings, or take a cut of drink specials redemptions.

Alternatively, we could pick the name discovery UX improvement, but they already built something similar. However, we could propose a more general "semantic entity explorer" for any categorical data (names, movies, products) using infinite wall UI and natural language search. Pain: existing browse experiences are clunky with filters and pagination. Solution: immersive, infinite, AI-driven exploration.

Let's evaluate viability and uniqueness.

We need to quote users in Notes.

Let's pick:

• Idea 1: Hyperlocal Notification Platform (for street sweeping, weather alerts, etc.) - referencing Broomsday and HailPass.

• Idea 2: Agent Skill Manager (TUI/GUI) - referencing primaprashant.

• Idea 3: AI-Powered Live Music & Drink Specials Aggregator - referencing ipunchghosts.

Now format each.

Make sure to follow exact markdown format.

We must not include any introductory text. Start with first project title.

Let's craft each.

Summary

• Provides a unified platform for municipalities and venues to publish timely alerts (street sweeping, weather hazards, event changes) and for residents to receive personalized SMS/email/push notifications based on their location and interests.
• Core value proposition: Eliminates the need to manually check multiple sources or miss critical local notices, reducing fines and improving community safety.

Details

Notes

• HN users like Broomsday ("sends folks emails and SMS