Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Company as Code

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Org‑as‑code is possible but still a work‑in‑progress idea
Many users point out that the concept can be built with existing IaC tools, but it is not yet a mature, battle‑tested solution.

“I built this around GitHub as the identity provider … while also being able to use users public ssh keys to (re)provision services to get them access automatically.” – mhitza
“I wrote this post some time ago, and more recently built a thing to do roughly this for my small business… it works for me, at my small scale.” – danielrothmann

2. Existing systems already cover most of what org‑as‑code promises
Several commenters argue that LDAP, Active Directory, ERP, or policy‑as‑code tools already provide the functionality, so reinventing it is unnecessary.

“This is not a bad idea but this person basically reinvented LDAP. Everything he wanted to do is already in LDAP, much already in Active Directory.” – conception
“It is essentially the same as what the article describes… but the reality of it is messy and not so easily defined.” – squeefers

3. Human‑centric reality limits a purely code‑driven model
A recurring theme is that companies are ultimately people, and their emotions, informal knowledge, and messy day‑to‑day work cannot be fully captured by code.

“A company is more than the function of its org chart… If you boil someone's actual job down to a HR job spec and assume that will suffice… you'll produce absurdly long HR job specs and still fail to capture the entirety of someone's role.” – philipwhiuk
“Managing those expectations and feelings can only be done by other humans that feel empathy… abstracting such relationships onto something that can be versioned, queried, tested, and automatically verified might create a shitty soulless place to work.” – jesucresta

These three threads—practicality, overlap with existing tools, and the human‑centric limits—dominate the discussion.


🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

OrgSync

Summary

  • Consolidates HR directory, GitHub repo permissions, and cloud IAM roles into a single, version‑controlled source of truth.
  • Provides automated reconciliation, audit logs, and alerts for drift, easing compliance and reducing manual sync errors.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Mid‑size to enterprise DevOps & security teams
Core Feature One‑click sync of people, roles, and access across multiple systems
Tech Stack Go/TypeScript, GraphQL API, Terraform provider, PostgreSQL, Docker
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: $99/month per org

Notes

  • HN commenters lament “3 different sources of truth” and “audit‑ready evidence” (e.g., “show managing secret keys and who had access to them”).
  • Enables “terraform apply” style changes to HR (e.g., lay‑offs) with instant access revocation.
  • Sparks discussion on the trade‑off between automation and human oversight.

Policy‑Lens

Summary

  • A dashboard that ingests policy‑as‑code (OPA, Terraform, Pulumi) and visualizes compliance status, drift, and impact analysis.
  • Generates human‑readable reports and alerts for auditors and compliance officers.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Compliance teams, auditors, DevSecOps engineers
Core Feature Real‑time policy evaluation, impact mapping, audit trail
Tech Stack Python, FastAPI, React, OPA REST API, PostgreSQL
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: $199/month per policy set

Notes

  • Addresses frustration that “policy‑as‑code tooling that actually works” is hard to consume (e.g., “policy‑as‑code tooling that actually works”).
  • Provides the “living, breathing digital representation” of compliance that commenters desire.
  • Encourages conversation about integrating policy checks into CI/CD pipelines.

ServiceMap DSL

Summary

  • A lightweight domain‑specific language and UI for defining services, roles, and dependencies, stored in Git.
  • Generates org charts, SOP templates, and access control rules automatically.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Product managers, operations, and small‑to‑mid companies
Core Feature Declarative service definition → auto‑generated org chart, SOPs, and IAM policies
Tech Stack Rust, WebAssembly, Vue.js, GitHub Actions, GraphQL
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: $49/month per repo

Notes

  • Responds to the need for “living, breathing digital representation” and “versioned, queried, tested” org data (e.g., “Imagine if we could represent our entire organisational structure programmatically”).
  • Bridges the gap between “business description” and “code” (e.g., “business description being uncaptured sporadically”).
  • Promotes discussion on whether a DSL can replace traditional ERP/HR systems for small teams.

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