9 ms·

Show HN: Dyad, local, open-source Lovable alternative (Electron desktop app)

28 points by willchen 1y ago

Hi HN! I left Google earlier this year and created Dyad, a local, open-source AI app builder made with Electron. The motivation: I tried one of the popular cloud-based AI app builders, but when I pulled down the app to run locally and debug in Cursor, it just didn’t work. So I created Dyad, an app builder that runs fully on your computer, making it easy to switch between Dyad and coding tools like Cursor or Claude Code. Source code: https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/ https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/ Download (free, no sign-up): https://www.dyad.sh/ https://www.dyad.sh/ I've gotten questions about how it works under the hood so I wrote an architecture doc explaining how it does tool calling using XML tags, etc: https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/main/docs/architecture.md https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/main/docs/architecture.... Let me know what you think and happy to answer questions about building an Electron app, etc!

willchen 1y ago
I'm working on adding MCP support to Dyad soon! What's your favorite MCP servers? (trying to curate a list of recommended MCPs)
- JeffKazzee 1y ago
  Context7 or Deepwiki are a must-have. They are also relatively secure, unless those sources of information become compromised in some way.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 1y ago
  There is a project I’ve been playing with called claude-code-templates that keeps curated lists of things Claude code can use, one of which is MCP servers: https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates
  - willchen 1y ago
    neat! thanks for sharing
freakynit 1y ago
These things does work (up to a max few thousand lines of code), but, they eat tokens like f*ng monsters.
- willchen 1y ago
  we have features like manual context management https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/large-apps#manual-context-management https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/large-apps#manual-context-ma... which lets you select files to use in your context window
  - freakynit 1y ago
    Hey, could the tool do this itself? Like using code embeddings? https://www.trynia.ai/ https://www.trynia.ai/ seems to be doing sometihing similar.
    - willchen 1y ago
      very interesting - when we ship MCP support you should be able to use nia!
      - freakynit 1y ago
        How about local support? First draft is simple enough to implement: chunk => embed => store. And then one simple lookup function. Complexity would arise once we start to go into AST's and graph traversals.
omneity 1y ago
Congrats for launching and awesome work, I will try it out soon! Question, I have my own persistence and auth services, all well documented, that I would like to build apps against. Is there a recommended way to do this other than pasting the docs in the prompt each time I create a new app?
- willchen 1y ago
  Thanks! Check out our Prompt Library feature: this way you can create reusable prompts across your apps: https://www.dyad.sh/docs/releases/0.18.0 https://www.dyad.sh/docs/releases/0.18.0
thekevan 1y ago
I have been using it and I love it. It's isn't my main driver because I have to work on a lot of Bootstrap sites, it didn't like them the last I checked because they weren't a js framework. But I have made a few playthings with it that were and it was good.
aitchnyu 1y ago
My Kagi-fu fails me, but I recall a builder generated code use Supabase row level security, and it fails open, and no longer filtering out data from other users. Is this guaranteed to protect your data?
- willchen 1y ago
  we have an extensive system prompt to instruct the Supabase to follow RLS best practices: https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/de2cc2b48f2c8bfa401608c63b5fa325bd7dc0dc/src/prompts/supabase_prompt.ts#L107 https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/de2cc2b48f2c8bfa401608c... What you're describing as the fail-open behavior is from the Supabase platform (and not specific to any app builders): https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level-security#row-level-security-in-supabase https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level...
atmanactive 1y ago
Can it run with Ollama?
- willchen 1y ago
  yes! https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/ai-models/local-models https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/ai-models/local-models
  - atmanactive 1y ago
    Thank you!
johnisgood 1y ago
> All source code remains on your machine. Use your preferred IDE (VS Code, Cursor, etc.) and seamlessly integrate Dyad into your existing workflow. The fact that it has to be said... :D
JeffKazzee 1y ago
Thanks for all of your hard work and commitment, Will! You've put everything into it, but its turning into something far more than some other companies that are much larger. Thanks for being such a kind, caring guy. I have been here for a long time now, using Dyad. It's often becoming my main choice for designing and prototyping on things when I have a bit of inspiration. I hope you find all the success out there, man. You're a genuinely good guy and it really shows in the way you do business. Have a wonderful time. Reach great heights.

28 points by willchen 1y ago

willchen 1y ago

I'm working on adding MCP support to Dyad soon! What's your favorite MCP servers? (trying to curate a list of recommended MCPs)

JeffKazzee 1y ago
Context7 or Deepwiki are a must-have. They are also relatively secure, unless those sources of information become compromised in some way.
SOLAR_FIELDS 1y ago
There is a project I’ve been playing with called claude-code-templates that keeps curated lists of things Claude code can use, one of which is MCP servers: https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates
- willchen 1y ago
  neat! thanks for sharing

freakynit 1y ago

These things does work (up to a max few thousand lines of code), but, they eat tokens like f*ng monsters.

willchen 1y ago
we have features like manual context management https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/large-apps#manual-context-management https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/large-apps#manual-context-ma... which lets you select files to use in your context window
- freakynit 1y ago
  Hey, could the tool do this itself? Like using code embeddings? https://www.trynia.ai/ https://www.trynia.ai/ seems to be doing sometihing similar.
  - willchen 1y ago
    very interesting - when we ship MCP support you should be able to use nia!
    - freakynit 1y ago
      How about local support? First draft is simple enough to implement: chunk => embed => store. And then one simple lookup function. Complexity would arise once we start to go into AST's and graph traversals.

omneity 1y ago

Congrats for launching and awesome work, I will try it out soon! Question, I have my own persistence and auth services, all well documented, that I would like to build apps against. Is there a recommended way to do this other than pasting the docs in the prompt each time I create a new app?

willchen 1y ago
Thanks! Check out our Prompt Library feature: this way you can create reusable prompts across your apps: https://www.dyad.sh/docs/releases/0.18.0 https://www.dyad.sh/docs/releases/0.18.0

thekevan 1y ago

I have been using it and I love it. It's isn't my main driver because I have to work on a lot of Bootstrap sites, it didn't like them the last I checked because they weren't a js framework. But I have made a few playthings with it that were and it was good.

aitchnyu 1y ago

My Kagi-fu fails me, but I recall a builder generated code use Supabase row level security, and it fails open, and no longer filtering out data from other users. Is this guaranteed to protect your data?

willchen 1y ago
we have an extensive system prompt to instruct the Supabase to follow RLS best practices: https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/de2cc2b48f2c8bfa401608c63b5fa325bd7dc0dc/src/prompts/supabase_prompt.ts#L107 https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad/blob/de2cc2b48f2c8bfa401608c... What you're describing as the fail-open behavior is from the Supabase platform (and not specific to any app builders): https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level-security#row-level-security-in-supabase https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level...

atmanactive 1y ago

Can it run with Ollama?

willchen 1y ago
yes! https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/ai-models/local-models https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/ai-models/local-models
- atmanactive 1y ago
  Thank you!

johnisgood 1y ago

> All source code remains on your machine. Use your preferred IDE (VS Code, Cursor, etc.) and seamlessly integrate Dyad into your existing workflow. The fact that it has to be said... :D

JeffKazzee 1y ago

Thanks for all of your hard work and commitment, Will! You've put everything into it, but its turning into something far more than some other companies that are much larger. Thanks for being such a kind, caring guy. I have been here for a long time now, using Dyad. It's often becoming my main choice for designing and prototyping on things when I have a bit of inspiration. I hope you find all the success out there, man. You're a genuinely good guy and it really shows in the way you do business. Have a wonderful time. Reach great heights.