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Show HN: gpt-engineer – platform for devs to tinker with AI programming tools

178 points by antonoo 3y ago

Hello Hacker News community, Wanted to share a project I started working on during my spare time and was then discovered by many in the open source community last week. GPT Engineer’s mission: Be the open platform for devs to tinker with and build their personal code-generation toolbox. I believe it's key for us devs to engage in how building software can and will change. You can find more info about the flexible technical "philosophy" to make it work well, and the community we want it to become on github: https://github.com/AntonOsika/gpt-engineer The project is still in early stages. It's clear that there is a lot of room for improvement as the space to combine tricks that guide LLM's is large. Appreciate any suggestions, experiences, or ideas on the project from you all!

londongrammar 3y ago
[dead]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
gitgud 3y ago
Interesting project, great work on getting it done. One thing I noticed is that the video in the readme doesn’t actually show the generated code running. It would be much more convincing if it did!
nathan_tarbert 3y ago
This is a really cool project. I'm going to play around with it. I love the fact that it's Open-Source!
- antonoo 3y ago
  Thanks!
reallymental 3y ago
Just a quick thing I loved about your gif at the end, the font and the theme of your Vim settings! Really loved it, do you mind sharing your .vimrc?
- Hallmane 3y ago
  https://github.com/AntonOsika/dotfiles https://github.com/AntonOsika/dotfiles
anotherpaulg 3y ago
Have you done much work on using GPT to *edit* code in an existing codebase? That's been my focus lately, working on my open source GPT coding tool [0]. Generating new code from whole-cloth seems like an easier task for GPT. My tool can certainly do that, as can smol-developer, etc. But you really only do that "once" per project. Can folks use gpt-engineer to modify and extend the code it has already created, as the user comes up with new features, etc? Can it be used to work on a pre-existing codebase? [0] https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider
- anton-107 3y ago
  Hmm, if generating new code is an easy task for GPT, why don't you ask it to create a new project from scratch every moment a user comes up with a new feature? Who needs to maintain an old codebase if you can rewrite it adding new features at whim?
- antonoo 3y ago
  Not yet. Considered adding it soon, the only reason I decided against — for now — is that for automatic evaluation human edits make it be try difficult! Fully automatic can be evaluated fully automatically. Good input.
- headcanon 3y ago
  Looks like you know more about it than me, but it seems to me that the main challenge is being able to include the appropriate context, and train it to output a diff which you can then apply to the codebase. Definitely looking forward to the day I review my first AI-generated PR (beyond dependency updates of course).
  - anotherpaulg 3y ago
    Yup, those seem to be the key challenges. I've been making good progress on them, but there's plenty more work to do! On the topic of "AI-generated PRs", I used my tool to file a PR to the `glow` CLI tool. I don't know the go language, so I had my tool `aider` add the feature I needed. I mostly use glow to preview README.md for GitHub, so I wanted it to render line breaks like GitHub does. https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow/pull/502 https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow/pull/502 I've also been able solve a couple of github issues that were file by users by just pasting the issue into my tool... it fixed itself. Links below: https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/13#issuecomment-1575564422 https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/13#issuecommen... https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/5#issuecomment-1555021491 https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/5#issuecomment...
LonisHamaili 3y ago
Wow, this is a big improvement on other 'gpt engineering' projects I've seen out there. What are the main things you think you can improve on it from here?
gaolei8888 3y ago
I'd like to see this is going forward. So much potential.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mayaakim 3y ago
Hey Anton, congratulations, I love the project, the results are amazing even though I still have access to gpt-3.5 only. I can't even image the results with gpt-4. I'd love to see some improvements on the clarifications/questions part, but overall it's a great project with so much potential. Did you consider including some sort of code self-repair step? Btw I posted a video [0] about gpt-engineer and my audience is also very impressed. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehvtuv3ZuQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehvtuv3ZuQ
thepra 3y ago
can it "scan" scan a local codebase, understand all the syntaxes used and their differences and being asked to write code for that particular part of the project?
braindead_in 3y ago
Cool project. I tried to build a reactjs Todo app with TDD, but it just put comments in the test file instead of the actual test. A self heal loop would be quite useful.
nobu513 3y ago
test
Kiro 3y ago
I haven't tried this but how do you get around the fact that it hallucinates functions and variables when doing it file by file? I haven't managed to make an app without error going this route. The only time it produces something working is when I keep it single-file (e.g. html, js and css together) or single-function.
ErikBjare 3y ago
Nice to finally see you submit it here Anton :)

178 points by antonoo 3y ago

londongrammar 3y ago

[dead]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

gitgud 3y ago

Interesting project, great work on getting it done. One thing I noticed is that the video in the readme doesn’t actually show the generated code running. It would be much more convincing if it did!

nathan_tarbert 3y ago

This is a really cool project. I'm going to play around with it. I love the fact that it's Open-Source!

antonoo 3y ago
Thanks!

reallymental 3y ago

Just a quick thing I loved about your gif at the end, the font and the theme of your Vim settings! Really loved it, do you mind sharing your .vimrc?

Hallmane 3y ago
https://github.com/AntonOsika/dotfiles https://github.com/AntonOsika/dotfiles

anotherpaulg 3y ago

Have you done much work on using GPT to *edit* code in an existing codebase? That's been my focus lately, working on my open source GPT coding tool [0]. Generating new code from whole-cloth seems like an easier task for GPT. My tool can certainly do that, as can smol-developer, etc. But you really only do that "once" per project. Can folks use gpt-engineer to modify and extend the code it has already created, as the user comes up with new features, etc? Can it be used to work on a pre-existing codebase? [0] https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider

anton-107 3y ago
Hmm, if generating new code is an easy task for GPT, why don't you ask it to create a new project from scratch every moment a user comes up with a new feature? Who needs to maintain an old codebase if you can rewrite it adding new features at whim?
antonoo 3y ago
Not yet. Considered adding it soon, the only reason I decided against — for now — is that for automatic evaluation human edits make it be try difficult! Fully automatic can be evaluated fully automatically. Good input.
headcanon 3y ago
Looks like you know more about it than me, but it seems to me that the main challenge is being able to include the appropriate context, and train it to output a diff which you can then apply to the codebase. Definitely looking forward to the day I review my first AI-generated PR (beyond dependency updates of course).
- anotherpaulg 3y ago
  Yup, those seem to be the key challenges. I've been making good progress on them, but there's plenty more work to do! On the topic of "AI-generated PRs", I used my tool to file a PR to the `glow` CLI tool. I don't know the go language, so I had my tool `aider` add the feature I needed. I mostly use glow to preview README.md for GitHub, so I wanted it to render line breaks like GitHub does. https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow/pull/502 https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow/pull/502 I've also been able solve a couple of github issues that were file by users by just pasting the issue into my tool... it fixed itself. Links below: https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/13#issuecomment-1575564422 https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/13#issuecommen... https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/5#issuecomment-1555021491 https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/issues/5#issuecomment...

LonisHamaili 3y ago

Wow, this is a big improvement on other 'gpt engineering' projects I've seen out there. What are the main things you think you can improve on it from here?

gaolei8888 3y ago

I'd like to see this is going forward. So much potential.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mayaakim 3y ago

Hey Anton, congratulations, I love the project, the results are amazing even though I still have access to gpt-3.5 only. I can't even image the results with gpt-4. I'd love to see some improvements on the clarifications/questions part, but overall it's a great project with so much potential. Did you consider including some sort of code self-repair step? Btw I posted a video [0] about gpt-engineer and my audience is also very impressed. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehvtuv3ZuQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehvtuv3ZuQ

thepra 3y ago

can it "scan" scan a local codebase, understand all the syntaxes used and their differences and being asked to write code for that particular part of the project?

braindead_in 3y ago

Cool project. I tried to build a reactjs Todo app with TDD, but it just put comments in the test file instead of the actual test. A self heal loop would be quite useful.

nobu513 3y ago

test

Kiro 3y ago

I haven't tried this but how do you get around the fact that it hallucinates functions and variables when doing it file by file? I haven't managed to make an app without error going this route. The only time it produces something working is when I keep it single-file (e.g. html, js and css together) or single-function.

ErikBjare 3y ago

Nice to finally see you submit it here Anton :)