Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)

Please do

I've been working on saving money on AI credits, and built a multi-model chat application (https://bobrchat.com/) to provide better insights into what each message costs in tokens. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's saved me plenty in comparison to some other subscriptions out there.

Used to pay $8/month, now I use around $4!

Working on reproducible test runs to catch quality issues from LLM providers.

My main goal is not just a "the model made code, yay!" setup, but verifiable outputs that can show degradation as percentages.

i.e. have the model make something like a connect 4 engine, and then run it through a lot of tests to see how "valid" it's solution is. Then score that solution as NN/100% accurate. Then do many runs of the same test at a fixed interval.

I have ~10 tests like this so far, working on more.

An alternative client for Bambu 3D printers that plays nicely with network sandboxing and multiple printers. It's great.

Bambu's printers are functionally best-in-class, but intrusive and proprietary in their approach to software. Their first-time setup "requires" linking to a cloud account or using a bambu app via QR code, and they've been known to disable functionality in updates, making a device-managed "LAN-only" mode unsafe to trust. Their apps also just suck. Camera feed is janky and LAN-only sync often requires knowing an access code, serial, IP, and then it fails most of the time anyway, silently, without saving values to retry. And that's before you start doing things like a custom VLAN/SSID to properly wall them off, at which point you can ping them from terminal but the apps break completely.

Anyway, turns out that at least on A1 and P1S, there's enough functionality available through traditional means to skip the apps entirely. The handshake works fine across VLANs and utils like print status, file upload, and auto-start are available. Even the camera is reliable when pulled as a series of still images.

I had opus vibe out a replacement front end that gives me a simple upload and monitor UI for my A1, and it just kept hitting stretch goals. I added support for multiple printers so you can see them stacked on a single page and manage all of them from one place. And it even works on just-unboxed models that have never been through the official setup. SSID info on the SD card, it joins the network, immediately accessible via IP. Zero association/contact with any cloud or app, fully sandboxed/offline. Wrapped in a lil python launcher so I can run it from the dock instead of in the browser (just my preference).

Will probably open source it soon.

IMO this kind of thing is the answer to "what do you have to show for your LLM use". Cost was about $65 because I was using opus 4.6 with no regard for efficiency, and because there were multiple total refactors of two apps. An annoying problem I deal with almost every day now has a permanent, personalized solution that took me ~3 hours and would never have otherwise happened.

The network itself is also such a project. I previously hobbled together a working unifi setup, but it was primitive and brittle. With LLM guidance, I was able to build something much more robust. TrueNAS scale for file backup that also runs Frigate for POE cam mgmt (similarly sandboxed), raspi running the unifi controller, another for homeassistant, etc. Absolutely miserable few days getting that dialed, but now that we're out the other side, it's very nice. Reminds me of building the house. You suffer more upfront in exchange for something that fits you like a glove. Very rewarding.

[dead]