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Ask HN: How do solo devs protect their work in the age of vibe coding?

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Re: Ask HN: How do solo devs protect their work in the age of vibe coding?

#31
Solo dev in similar situation here. Agree with some of the other comments that the moat is not the code, especially in OSS.

I'm trying to find a sweet spot between the OSS part of the software and a potential premium feature set that would add enough value that people would be happy to pay for it. The OSS part becomes the validation of user need and distribution; the paid layer validates revenue.

If you couple that with great customer support you give people little reason to switch. In an age where everyone can build product, marketing/sales and customer support seems to be premium.

How we build retention with agents being the primary user/customer is another issue...

Re: Ask HN: How do solo devs protect their work in the age of vibe coding?

#32
post #5
post #2

Is your project a vibe-coded application? It sounds like you're insecure about someone copying your idea, which will could happen regardless of licensing if anyone has access to Claude Code and a description of your product. If your primary motivation to use an Open Source license is gaining trust and users, you're just going to be disappointed.

I vide-coded some, but the core is hand-craft arch/algorithm, that's the most valuable part I want to protect.

whatever AI you used already hoovered up your algo.
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