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Show HN: Darwin – Automate Your GitHub Project with AI
Hey HN!
I've been working on a project called Darwin that I'm thrilled to share with you.
Darwin is essentially your GitHub agent powered by large language models (LLMs). It checks out your projects, understands them through natural language prompts, and automates tasks such as fixing issues, documenting code, reviewing pull requests, and more.
What drove me to create Darwin was a desire to harness the power of LLMs in a way that's seamlessly integrated with the tools I use daily. The motivation came from my curiosity about what could be possible when writing code that understands code.
Darwin stands out because it's designed for developers who want to leverage AI without needing deep expertise in LLMs or prompt engineering. It offers:
- hands-off approach to automate routine development tasks.
- Novel and creative ways of making LLMs work for you
- A unique API for each project, allowing for customized automation tools.
Currently, Darwin is in alpha. It's functional, with users able to connect their repositories, define tools, and run tasks. I'm especially interested in feedback at this stage — everything from output quality to user experience. Every project starts with a $5 free budget to try it out, and while payment isn't implemented yet, I'm keen to hear your thoughts.
The vision for Darwin is not just about automation but creating a more productive, creative, and enjoyable development experience. I believe we're just scratching the surface of what's possible with AI in software development, and I'm excited to see where we can take this.
For those interested, I'm looking for alpha testers and feedback. If you're curious about automating your GitHub workflow or want to push the limits of what AI can do for development, Darwin might be for you.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
- ryancnelson 3y agonaming things is hard. Googling for other things already named this shouldn't be.
- mlamina 3y agoYou're right, any suggestions for a better name are welcome!
- lizardking 3y agoMaybe name it after a wizard. Albus?
- pksebben 3y agoOr Ridcullly.
- interstice 3y agoRincewind?
- distortedsignal 3y agoIf you're going for wizard names, there are a few under-known (not unknown, but not widely known) wizards in Middle earth: * Radagast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radagast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radagast) * Valinorian: Alatar, Middle Earth: Morinehtar (Saruman, ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_in_Middle-earth#Names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_in_Middle-earth#Names) * Valinorian: Pallando, Middle Earth: Rómestámo (Gandalf, ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_in_Middle-earth#Names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_in_Middle-earth#Names) This link appears to have a few well-known wizards in the DnD lore: https://old.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/16qr5pz/ingame_famous_wizards_of_the_forgotten_realms/k1yqowc/ https://old.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/16qr5pz/ingame_famous_...
- e12e 3y agoSimia Kodex Sapiens, Sikosa or sks.
- noman-land 3y agoHow about HMS Automate.
- mlamina 3y agoIt makes me chuckle every time I say it :D
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- justinclift 3y ago"Darwin" is already pretty apt though. There's famously even an award named that which is on topic for if/when this goes wrong. ;)
- lulzx 3y agoI like the implementation
- drusepth 3y agoMight be getting a big hug from our friends here. > Error: Server Error > The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. > Please try again in 30 seconds.
- mlamina 3y agoYup, HN overloaded it! I upscaled the deployment. Do I need a CDN already? :D
- gajnadsgjoas 3y agoIs it open source? I can hardly imagine giving access to my code to another service without a clear understanding what it does
- mlamina 3y agoIt's not open source. Do you have any specific questions about what it does? I'm still working on how to better communicate this to users.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- treyd 3y agoI wouldn't want to rely on anything for my daily workflow that I can't self-host.
- 3abiton 3y agoThis is a deal breaker for many HN users, including me. Especially a piece of software with such privileges.
- smcleod 3y agoThat would be a deal breaker when it comes to CI tools.
- SuperHeavy256 3y agoIt asks for access to my private repos. I don't want to give a brand-new AI tool access to my private repos. But if it looking at my private repos was optional, I would try it.
- mlamina 3y agoI get that! In order to check out the repo, these permissions are required though. What could I do to make you feel comfortable granting those permissions?
- bo0tzz 3y agoIt would be much better to allow granting access to only a single repository, rather than complete and absolute access to all the repositories in an account.
- mlamina 3y agoI hear you. I've posted a comment to address this concern
- haswell 3y agoComplete transparency and clarity about how data is used, stored, what systems get to see it, and minimizing privileges would be a starting point IMO. Ask yourself the same question: what would make you feel comfortable handing the keys to your GitHub account to me, haswell, for a tool that I decide to share here?
- mlamina 3y agoThank you! Based on the feedback I saw here, I'll create some diagrams and more details about how things work under the hood. Will also work on the privileges issue.
- justinclift 3y agoPlease make sure it doesn't request access to private repos. That would be far more considerate of your potential users.
- maho 3y agoLet's say I want to have a somewhat genereric CRUD-app: A database, some application logic, a login system, logging/telemetry and a UI. What kind of stack should I use so that tools like Darwin (or just plain old copilot) can be most effective?
- mlamina 3y agoMost effective in what way? Are you looking to generate an app from scratch or have AIs work on an existing project?
- bbor 3y agoMy general answer: any tool that has a large online community. I’m not the dev, but any LLM-backed responses will naturally depend on that LLM’s familiarity with the tech. With that in mind, RubyOnRails and create-react-app (+ some node backend) seem like the natural winners.
- throwaway63820 3y agoI like it! I built a command line AI coding assistant for my projects (https://codemancer.codes https://codemancer.codes) when GPT-4 first came out, but still think this space is wayyy under explored given the possible capabilities.
- mlamina 3y agoCouldn't agree more! Codemancer looks great, I'll give it a try
- adlpz 3y agoThere you go, GPL, now we're talking. I understand that people gotta make money, but giving access to something as insanely critical as a company private repo... it's either a huge company the lawyers can talk to, or this. Open source. Definitely checking out codemancer.
- justinclift 3y agoAlthough it has a mention of "GPL" at the bottom of the readme in your repo: https://github.com/0xmmo/codemancer/ https://github.com/0xmmo/codemancer/ ... it doesn't have anything else. Generally the text of the GPL license is placed in a file (named "COPYING" or "LICENSE") in the root directory of the repo. Might want to add it so its super clear. :)
- throwaway63820 3y agoThank you for the tip! Will add.
- pests 3y agoHave you checked out aider-chat? Seems very similar to what you're working on.
- jtwaleson 3y agoThings like this are clearly the future. Having seen how some open source projects are run, and how we delegate some tasks to juniors, LLMs can play a major role. Imagine not having have to spell out a response to a bug report or a feature request, but the LLM gives you three options and you just pick one. Super simple and that alone would be an insane boost for productivity. For Darwin, one improvement that comes to mind is to make a catalog of blueprints with common actions, so users have less to configure. Good luck with the product!
- mlamina 3y agoThis is great feedback, thank you!
- educaysean 3y agoDo you have an open and public PR that shows off Darwin's PR review capabilities? I'm reading a lot of words about what it can do, but I'd much rather see an actual example.
- mlamina 3y agoNo yet, but I see how that would be a great show case. Will work on that!
- bbor 3y agoAs someone who’s also solo-employed on AI development, I love your work based on the copy - will try when I get home. Please, tho, do some thinking about safety if you haven’t. There’s a lot that can go wrong between “nothing” and “paperclip apocalypse”, and I think the autonomy you’re giving machines here should only be done with great care. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kpPnReyBC54KESiSn/optimality-is-the-tiger-and-agents-are-its-teeth https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kpPnReyBC54KESiSn/optimality...
- mlamina 3y agoThank you! I've been so busy trying to build my idea that in this early stage, AI safety hasn't been top of mind. The comments here show that this clearly needs to be a top priority moving forward.
- htrp 3y agoWhat's the backing LM?
- mlamina 3y agoEverything goes through OpenAI. Different models are used for different purposes, at the moment we use gpt-3.5-turbo and gpt-4-turbo-preview
- meeech 3y agotbh i wanted to try it. But there's not even a privacy policy. And you asking for access to a lot of stuff (public and private)
- cmgriffing 3y agoI think this is a cool idea. I'm curious why it could't work like dependabot does though. Dependabot can scan my public repos and even create PRs from its own ephemeral forks without the overstepping of permissions that this needs.
- mlamina 3y agoThank you for the tip! I will look at how dependabot does it
- nusl 3y agoI would be more willing to try this if it was possible to host it myself. I get that you want to monetize this and that’s fair, but I am also not going to trust my code to a random online tool. Maybe I’ll give a bash at making something like this for my own use
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- smcleod 3y agoIs it self-hostable / usable with your own Github App? There's no way I'm granting a third party app access to all my public and private repos.
- cdolan 3y agoVery cool, but not going to be able to use something like this (requiring access to source code) without self hosting
- mlamina 3y agoUPDATE First of all - big thank you to everyone who gave feedback and tried out the project! I hear your concerns about trust and invasive permissions. Here is what I will do tonight: - Remove all data of everyone who has signed up so far - Revoke all granted privileges - Deactivate signup - Put a detailed note on the front page for anyone who's already signed up Your feedback has been invaluable and I will start working on the next iteration soon.