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I went in the opposite direction and built https://smalldocs.org/ https://smalldocs.org/, which is an office suite AI agents (and humans - including SWEs!) like

I went in the opposite direction and built https://smalldocs.org/ https://smalldocs.org/, which is an office suite AI agents (and humans - including SWEs!) like to use. I say it’s as if “Claude Code & Microsoft Office had a baby...” Code available: https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs Discord: https://discord.gg/txjATTsDaq https://discord.gg/txjATTsDaq Sample document: https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc Invoked via Claude Code by saying stuff like: “sdoc me the plan for this feature”, or “dig into our logs and sdoc me a report on our latency”

nimonian 3mo ago
Neat! I think agents making Word docs and PowerPoints is going to go away. I think something like small docs is the future.
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Thanks very much! That is exactly my view too. It’s also nice to get out of the command line for doing deep reading. I have had a few developers try it, and some small number of them use it week after week (as do I): https://smalldocs.org/analytics https://smalldocs.org/analytics
- SoftTalker 3mo ago
  I don't think the corporate world is moving away from Word and PowerPoint anytime soon.
lelanthran 3mo ago
This looks neat, but I don't see any examples of the format on the webpage (And no, I am not going to install Node.js just to see examples of the format).
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Does this link not work? https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc If you’re talking about the README, you are right, but I think the homepage has a lot of examples you can click: https://smalldocs.org/#learn https://smalldocs.org/#learn
  - lelanthran 3mo ago
    I don't see a description of the format in that. What does a human write to (for example) create the diagram mentioned in "A diagram, drawn from a description rather than dragged into place."? To me this looks like AI-writes-everything and human-reads-everything.
    - FailMore 3mo ago
      It is mostly that pattern yes, but you can see the underlying formats in https://smalldocs.org/docs https://smalldocs.org/docs
      - lelanthran 3mo ago
        Right, thanks. I looked at the format. I think you're mostly on the right track, but I also think that a better candidate might be to simply use (and augment, where necessary, such as for styles) the org mode format: It can do all the stuff you have, but also things like checkboxes, calendars, and more. As a bonus, both people and agents already know the format so there is no need to have a skills file. For example, the following prompt on Gemini WebChat (hardly a good model): Give me an org mode file to show a PERT (Project evaluation and Review Technique) diagram, with a calendar below the diagram allowing me to see the current year. Create a hierarchy of tasks that have to be done using checkboxes and collapsible sections to mark tasks/subtasks as done. Below that, give me a table of all the terminal tasks that need to be completed with task/subtask name, starting date, estimated ending date and the resource assigned to it. Finally, at the end, produce a gantt chart as a mermaid diagram for the sample project. Produced a working file with tables[1], diagrams, calendar, checkboxes in a single file that Emacs rendered properly. Org mode can export to every format I ever needed (LaTeX, html, pdf). I once even had the resulting HTML conversion contain animations written in Javascript :-) Maybe all you need to code for agents to write is a web-based viewer for Org Mode syntax? Look at it this way: right now if I wanted what smalldocs does (i.e. ask the agent to generate any of your examples), I can ask the agent "do $FOO, generate org mode", and without a single additional skill/claude.md/agents.md file, get exactly the result you got from smalldocs. I think maybe testdrive Emacs daily for a month; it would open your mind to the possibilities available[2]. If anything more is needed (like I wanted to put in JS in the HTML output), it can do it. If Emacs cannot do it, my agent can write an EmacsLisp function that will do it. At the end of the day, when even a poor LLM can do what smalldocs does but without any additional .md files or context, I think maybe your solution might be over-engineered. ---------- [1] Org mode tables work exactly like spreadsheets, in that they can contain formulas. [2] Think of it this way - when I needed multimodal documents, because I already knew Emacs, I just used that. When you needed multimodal documents, you vibed a whole new product into existence.
philips 3mo ago
This is really neat! I have been thinking about similar problems. Is there a way to collaborate with multiple agents or people on the same doc? It is unclear to me.
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Multiple agents could write to the doc locally, but for the moment it’s not predominantly could based (only short links). I think I will build a cloud first version/offering/config soon
etothet 3mo ago
Great job on this. I can see this being extremely useful for my teams!
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Thanks, please could you email me at hi@smalldocs.org. I’m trying to learn how to make this a better experience for teams, so would love to work with you guys to optimise the experience.
keithnz 3mo ago
I built some scripts to do something similar but all local. It also live updates the document so you can see changes come through. Super useful
anduril22 3mo ago
This is super cool - so many uses. Does it work well with Excel formulae?
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Yep, it does. If you open https://smalldocs.org/s/tUWdfKLKBcnhnrYsoFMn4W#k=7SC6KGg-FyeAUoF5cpAJUFZQ5fD6Qx-VanRgID60--0 https://smalldocs.org/s/tUWdfKLKBcnhnrYsoFMn4W#k=7SC6KGg-Fye... And scroll to the business model area, you’ll see it supports multi tab functionality + connected formulas.
Zambyte 3mo ago
Notably the posted project is Apache licensed, and your project is Elastic licensed. Your project looks cool and you've clearly put a lot of thought into making it useful, but the license makes it a non-starter for me.
- FailMore 3mo ago
  I’m open for feedback on the license. As you say/notice, I’ve put a lot of work in and I think there is a commercial pathway forward for the product. I don’t want to let someone else - who might be more experienced - take everything I’ve done and build a business with it (I’d really like to do that myself), so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment. But open for feedback/maybe I’m being too short sighted…
wonderwallaus 3mo ago
I find it so amusing that small dev's get it so right, yeh a trillion dollar company can't figure out what copilot is to their ecosystem.
- FailMore 3mo ago
  Thanks!
maxloh 3mo ago
> Elastic License 2.0. The source is public and you may use, copy, modify, and redistribute it. You may not offer SmallDocs to third parties as a hosted or managed service, strip its licensing notices, or circumvent its license-key functionality. It is not open source unfortunately.
- FailMore 3mo ago
  I posted the same thing below, but I’m open for feedback on the license. I’ve put a lot of work in and I think there is a commercial pathway forward for the product. I don’t want to let someone else - who might be more experienced re commercialisation - take everything I’ve done and build a business with it (I’d really like to do that myself), so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment. But open for feedback/maybe I’m being too short sighted…
  - tchalla 3mo ago
    I don’t see why your license should be open source. It’s alright what you have.
  - Semaphor 3mo ago
    Personally, I like the elastic (and similar) license… as long as, as you did, it’s chosen upfront. Being open source as a marketing strategy and later switching to source available licenses is what I find highly [0] problematic. [0]: With a bit of an understandable carve out if it turns out no one else ever contributed anything of significance.
  - 8cvor6j844qw_d6 3mo ago
    > so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment You're onto the right track if you have plans for commercialisation. Thanks for building this, I've tested it out and it's useful.
dumbmachine 3mo ago
This is so cool! Loved your agent instruction snippet too.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]

nimonian 3mo ago

Neat! I think agents making Word docs and PowerPoints is going to go away. I think something like small docs is the future.

FailMore 3mo ago
Thanks very much! That is exactly my view too. It’s also nice to get out of the command line for doing deep reading. I have had a few developers try it, and some small number of them use it week after week (as do I): https://smalldocs.org/analytics https://smalldocs.org/analytics
SoftTalker 3mo ago
I don't think the corporate world is moving away from Word and PowerPoint anytime soon.

lelanthran 3mo ago

This looks neat, but I don't see any examples of the format on the webpage (And no, I am not going to install Node.js just to see examples of the format).

FailMore 3mo ago
Does this link not work? https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc If you’re talking about the README, you are right, but I think the homepage has a lot of examples you can click: https://smalldocs.org/#learn https://smalldocs.org/#learn
- lelanthran 3mo ago
  I don't see a description of the format in that. What does a human write to (for example) create the diagram mentioned in "A diagram, drawn from a description rather than dragged into place."? To me this looks like AI-writes-everything and human-reads-everything.
  - FailMore 3mo ago
    It is mostly that pattern yes, but you can see the underlying formats in https://smalldocs.org/docs https://smalldocs.org/docs
    - lelanthran 3mo ago
      Right, thanks. I looked at the format. I think you're mostly on the right track, but I also think that a better candidate might be to simply use (and augment, where necessary, such as for styles) the org mode format: It can do all the stuff you have, but also things like checkboxes, calendars, and more. As a bonus, both people and agents already know the format so there is no need to have a skills file. For example, the following prompt on Gemini WebChat (hardly a good model): Give me an org mode file to show a PERT (Project evaluation and Review Technique) diagram, with a calendar below the diagram allowing me to see the current year. Create a hierarchy of tasks that have to be done using checkboxes and collapsible sections to mark tasks/subtasks as done. Below that, give me a table of all the terminal tasks that need to be completed with task/subtask name, starting date, estimated ending date and the resource assigned to it. Finally, at the end, produce a gantt chart as a mermaid diagram for the sample project. Produced a working file with tables[1], diagrams, calendar, checkboxes in a single file that Emacs rendered properly. Org mode can export to every format I ever needed (LaTeX, html, pdf). I once even had the resulting HTML conversion contain animations written in Javascript :-) Maybe all you need to code for agents to write is a web-based viewer for Org Mode syntax? Look at it this way: right now if I wanted what smalldocs does (i.e. ask the agent to generate any of your examples), I can ask the agent "do $FOO, generate org mode", and without a single additional skill/claude.md/agents.md file, get exactly the result you got from smalldocs. I think maybe testdrive Emacs daily for a month; it would open your mind to the possibilities available[2]. If anything more is needed (like I wanted to put in JS in the HTML output), it can do it. If Emacs cannot do it, my agent can write an EmacsLisp function that will do it. At the end of the day, when even a poor LLM can do what smalldocs does but without any additional .md files or context, I think maybe your solution might be over-engineered. ---------- [1] Org mode tables work exactly like spreadsheets, in that they can contain formulas. [2] Think of it this way - when I needed multimodal documents, because I already knew Emacs, I just used that. When you needed multimodal documents, you vibed a whole new product into existence.

philips 3mo ago

This is really neat! I have been thinking about similar problems. Is there a way to collaborate with multiple agents or people on the same doc? It is unclear to me.

FailMore 3mo ago
Multiple agents could write to the doc locally, but for the moment it’s not predominantly could based (only short links). I think I will build a cloud first version/offering/config soon

etothet 3mo ago

Great job on this. I can see this being extremely useful for my teams!

FailMore 3mo ago
Thanks, please could you email me at hi@smalldocs.org. I’m trying to learn how to make this a better experience for teams, so would love to work with you guys to optimise the experience.

keithnz 3mo ago

I built some scripts to do something similar but all local. It also live updates the document so you can see changes come through. Super useful

anduril22 3mo ago

This is super cool - so many uses. Does it work well with Excel formulae?

FailMore 3mo ago
Yep, it does. If you open https://smalldocs.org/s/tUWdfKLKBcnhnrYsoFMn4W#k=7SC6KGg-FyeAUoF5cpAJUFZQ5fD6Qx-VanRgID60--0 https://smalldocs.org/s/tUWdfKLKBcnhnrYsoFMn4W#k=7SC6KGg-Fye... And scroll to the business model area, you’ll see it supports multi tab functionality + connected formulas.

Zambyte 3mo ago

Notably the posted project is Apache licensed, and your project is Elastic licensed. Your project looks cool and you've clearly put a lot of thought into making it useful, but the license makes it a non-starter for me.

FailMore 3mo ago
I’m open for feedback on the license. As you say/notice, I’ve put a lot of work in and I think there is a commercial pathway forward for the product. I don’t want to let someone else - who might be more experienced - take everything I’ve done and build a business with it (I’d really like to do that myself), so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment. But open for feedback/maybe I’m being too short sighted…

wonderwallaus 3mo ago

I find it so amusing that small dev's get it so right, yeh a trillion dollar company can't figure out what copilot is to their ecosystem.

FailMore 3mo ago
Thanks!

maxloh 3mo ago

> Elastic License 2.0. The source is public and you may use, copy, modify, and redistribute it. You may not offer SmallDocs to third parties as a hosted or managed service, strip its licensing notices, or circumvent its license-key functionality. It is not open source unfortunately.

FailMore 3mo ago
I posted the same thing below, but I’m open for feedback on the license. I’ve put a lot of work in and I think there is a commercial pathway forward for the product. I don’t want to let someone else - who might be more experienced re commercialisation - take everything I’ve done and build a business with it (I’d really like to do that myself), so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment. But open for feedback/maybe I’m being too short sighted…
- tchalla 3mo ago
  I don’t see why your license should be open source. It’s alright what you have.
- Semaphor 3mo ago
  Personally, I like the elastic (and similar) license… as long as, as you did, it’s chosen upfront. Being open source as a marketing strategy and later switching to source available licenses is what I find highly [0] problematic. [0]: With a bit of an understandable carve out if it turns out no one else ever contributed anything of significance.
- 8cvor6j844qw_d6 3mo ago
  > so wasn’t sure what license to use as MIT didn’t feel right to me at the moment You're onto the right track if you have plans for commercialisation. Thanks for building this, I've tested it out and it's useful.

dumbmachine 3mo ago

This is so cool! Loved your agent instruction snippet too.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]