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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Show HN: Vibe coding a bookshelf with Claude Code

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Vibe Coding Excels for Small, Personal Projects

Users praise AI tools like Claude for rapidly building custom, one-off apps that match exact needs, especially for non-professionals.

"Claude code is a great tool for creating software for a user of 1. Personal software that runs locally... turned my days/hours long side quests into minutes" (kingkongjaffa)

"These are the perfect size projects vibe coding is currently good for" (spicyusername)

Many shared similar projects (e.g., nindalf, cube2222, cdcarter).

2. Limitations in Large/Complex Projects Require Human Management

AI falters on big codebases due to context limits, bugs, and poor reuse; users advocate modular design, detailed plans, and review.

"At some point you hit a project size that is too large... it's usually best to drop back to brainstorming mode" (spicyusername)

"I architect the modules... review all code in detail... write good instructions and manage the context well" (cube2222)

"Program to an interface, not an implementation" (pigpop)

3. Humans Provide Taste and Intent; AI Handles Execution

Core leverage is human direction; AI commoditizes implementation but can't replace judgment.

"Claude handled implementation. I handled taste" (vtemian, asasidh)

"intent and taste stay human. That’s where the real leverage is" (vtemian)

"The model handles execution, but intent and taste stay human" (kgthegreat)

🚀 Project Ideas

Modular Vibe-Coder Scaffold

Summary

  • A CLI tool that generates modular project scaffolds with interfaces, agent.md files, and sample code for LLMs, solving context overload in larger vibe-coding projects by enforcing boundaries and reducing interdependencies.
  • Core value: Enables "vibe-coding" at scale for non-daily coders by automating architecture that fits LLM strengths, like cube2222's "architect the modules" workflow.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Hobby coders and non-professional developers using LLMs for side projects
Core Feature Input project description; outputs folder structure, TypeScript/Python interfaces per module, plan.md with tickets, and LLM prompts
Tech Stack Node.js/CLI (Commander.js), EJS templates, optional LLM integration (OpenAI API)
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium CLI ($5/mo pro scaffolds)

Notes

  • Addresses pigpop's "program to an interface" advice and cube2222's "agent.md files for guidance"; HN users would love it for scaling personal apps without manual planning.
  • High discussion potential as "Claude Code killer" for larger projects; practical for Rust outliners or p2p apps mentioned.

Bookshelf Vision-to-Data Extractor

Summary

  • Web app/service that takes bookshelf photos, extracts book titles/authors via vision LLM, enriches with Google Books API/ISBN, and exports CSV/JSON for custom apps like Libib or vibe-coded shelves.
  • Core value: Automates tedious photo-to-data pipeline at 90% accuracy, solving pixelmonkey/disconcision's manual extraction pains for anti-libraries and ownership tracking.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Book collectors building personal shelves (OP, nindalf, pokemyiout)
Core Feature Multi-image upload, LLM vision extraction (Gemini/Claude), dedup/enrich, one-click export to Libib/Goodreads or static site generator
Tech Stack Next.js, Vercel AI SDK (Gemini), Google Books API, Tauri for desktop
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Quotes like pixelmonkey's "photographs of bookshelves... high accuracy" and disconcision's SVG struggles; HN book nerds (dewey, _august) would rave about reviving Delicious Library vibes.
  • Utility for thousands of physical books; sparks threads on accuracy benchmarks.

LLM Plan-to-Code Ticket Manager

Summary

  • Desktop app that turns vague ideas into structured Markdown plans/tickets, then loops LLM agents on small tasks with context isolation, fixing xur17/cube2222's "iterate on plan, implement tickets" workflow gaps.
  • Core value: Bridges vibe-coding to structured dev for "less well-defined" projects, with auto-review and bash-loop execution like cube2222's outliner experiments.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Vibe-coders hitting project size limits (spicyusername, OptionOfT)
Core Feature Prompt-to-plan generator, ticket queue with context pruning, one-click Claude/GPT execution loop, diff viewer
Tech Stack Tauri (Rust/JS), Anthropic API, Git integration
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription ($10/mo unlimited runs)

Notes

  • Directly from xur17's "implementation plan... smaller tickets" and cube2222's "bash for loop... phase $i"; users like kgthegreat would discuss "agency continuum" extensions.
  • Practical for open-source contribs or personal tools; viral potential via GitHub shares.

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