bring your own tools

on the true power of vibe coding

one of the novel things about vibe coding is the idea of "bring your own tools".

here's an example app i've built and been using most days.

background: one of the most time-consuming parts of my job is refining and speccing out github issues in our backlog. frankly, i kinda suck at it.

part of the ..issue.. (🥁...) is that it's just quite slow and clunky to do in github. opening new tabs, switching views, missing keyboard shortcuts, and not having the exact workflow i want.

so i built a little tool. just for me.

the app lets me fetch the exact batch of issues i want to work through. then i work through editing, refining and prioritising them.

in just a few hours, i was able to easily plug into the github api, fetch specific batches of issues, and design my own perfect dream UI. everything is driven by keyboard shortcuts, arrow-key navigation through issues, no extra tabs or loading. exactly how i want it.

yes, the code is likely very average. but, it’ll never have to get out of localhost. and it works. and yes, i fully recognise the irony of building a tool instead of just grooming the tickets. but still.

just a few years ago, i would've paid $X a month for some micro-SaaS product to do this. now you just build it.

if you just extrapolate this behaviour out, it feels like kind of a big deal.