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Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

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Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#941

Post by gngoo »

This is going to sound ridicilous. But in the past month, I have been working on an AI agent that can write its own AI agents. I can give it a task like: "Please create an AI agent that fetches the weather, and sends me an email every morning about some interesting stuff to do". The agent then goes through a loop of requirements gathering (with my input), and then starts building himself.

It self-references its own documentation, spins up a docker container and runs it. Alongside it builds tools, and registers both the agents and tools in a central system, so that it has knowledge of what other tools and agents it can use. I am not talking about "I am working on the theoretical idea of an agent that can build agent", but this is actually working. And I know of several other teams that are building stuff in this direction, its very fun.

I left behind a very well paying client to go full-time on this because its just so much fun. I have connected it to telegram, so now while I am at the gym, I can actually build software... the execution may take anywhere from a 10 minutes to an hour. Which is time spend writing and testing the code, then spinning up a docker container and fixing stuff, prompting me to create accounts somewhere an provide an API key. By far its the most complex project I have worked on, and all my friends and colleagues are slightly going crazy by seeing the outputs.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#944

Post by xarici_ishler »

jarek83 wrote: post #915
xarici_ishler wrote: post #8

The first ever SQL debugger – runs & visualizes your query step-by-step, every clause, condition, expression, incl. GROUP BY, aggregates / windows, DISTINCT (ON), subqueries (even correlated ones!), CTEs, you name it. You can search for full or partial rows and see the whole query lineage – which intermediate rows from which CTEs/subqueries contributed to the result you're searching for. Entirely offline & no usage o…

Finish it, shut up, take my money! This looks really good - make a website just to make it possible to sign up for updates.

https://dequery.io :) Added a little signup form (with possibility of providing additional feedback)

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#945

Post by beau_g »

rapjr9 wrote: post #927
tetris11 wrote: post #280

A tree cutting tool. Take photos of the tree from 6 different angles, feed into a 3D model generator, erode the model and generate a 3D graph representation of the tree. The tool suggests which cuts to make and where, given a restricted fall path (e.g. constrained by a neighbors yard on one side). I create the fallen branches in their final state along the fall plane, and create individual correction vectors mapping…

I've been thinking for years about a safer alternative to chain saws. Something along the lines of a carbide coated wire driven by an electric motor and battery. Strap it to the tree, turn it on, walk away and some minutes later the tree falls down. The main difficulty is in how to drive the wire. Using friction would create fast wearing parts. Maybe a chain could be used instead of a wire. It could oscillate back an…

I was thinking I could use a tool just like the wire you described to remove a stump, after I spent 6 hours with a 5ton Bobcat trying to dig up a 3ft diameter pine stump to no avail today. For felling trees though, you need precise front cuts/back cuts to drop the tree at a desired angle, you can't just cut in one direction even if you have a cable attached.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#946

Post by beau_g »

scandox wrote: post #820
tetris11 wrote: post #280

A tree cutting tool. Take photos of the tree from 6 different angles, feed into a 3D model generator, erode the model and generate a 3D graph representation of the tree. The tool suggests which cuts to make and where, given a restricted fall path (e.g. constrained by a neighbors yard on one side). I create the fallen branches in their final state along the fall plane, and create individual correction vectors mapping…

Forgive my ignorance but all the tree cutting I've observed has been based on climbing and cutting in segments from the top rather than letting the tree fall. Under what circumstances is it better or necessary to actually let the tree fall?

Any tree near civilization that someone wants to pay to cut down is likely going to be at a distance from a structure, powerlines, or pipes in the ground (that's also the reason they want it removed) where felling it as it lies is not likely an option which is why you see them sectioned down or done with a crane or bucket truck. A lot of these trees done by tree care companies in residential or commercial areas are also sprawling hardwood trees like oaks that can't always be safely just dropped from the ground even if there's a clear area to drop it in. For logging or wildland firefighting, most of the trees being dropped are straight growing softwoods like pine or fir that are just dropped from the ground (or by machine).

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#948

Post by teleforce »

tetris11 wrote: post #280

A tree cutting tool. Take photos of the tree from 6 different angles, feed into a 3D model generator, erode the model and generate a 3D graph representation of the tree. The tool suggests which cuts to make and where, given a restricted fall path (e.g. constrained by a neighbors yard on one side). I create the fallen branches in their final state along the fall plane, and create individual correction vectors mapping…

Having joined may father and his friend during the process of cutting down big trees in the village neighborhood I can personally vouch that this indeed a cumbersome and very complex task for both the planning and the execution phases. However, for us the tasks are made easier by the trimming of the tree's branches since my father's friend is the expert tree climber.

From your descriptions, it seems that your tree cutting procedures do not involved precut of the tree's branches before cutting the tree down.

I've got the feeling that this cutting tree problem can be solved by constraint programming techniques [1],[2]. Alternatively generic tools for constraint programming, for example OR-Tools and MiniZinc can probably do the same if not better [3],[4].

[1] Logic, Optimization, and Constraint Programming: A Fruitful Collaboration - John Hooker - CMU (2023) [video]:

https://www.youtube.com/live/TknN8fCQvRk

[2] "We Really Don't Know How to Compute!" - Gerald Sussman - MIT (2011) [video]:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HB5TrK7A4pI

[3] Google OR-Tools:

https://developers.google.com/optimization

[4] MiniZinc:

https://www.minizinc.org/

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#949

Post by jarek83 »

czhu12 wrote: post #621

Been building HelloCSV - an open source FlatFile alternative. I've been building this for work and the folks at work were cool enough to let me just build it in open source. https://hellocsv.github.io/HelloCSV/ It basically runs 100% on your / your users browser, and I'm adding localstorage support so the user can refresh their page without losing their progress. Love flatfile but it sends your data to remote servers…

Really nice - I love the simplicity of the UI and how intuitive it is!

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

#950

Post by xarici_ishler »

xarici_ishler wrote: post #8

The first ever SQL debugger – runs & visualizes your query step-by-step, every clause, condition, expression, incl. GROUP BY, aggregates / windows, DISTINCT (ON), subqueries (even correlated ones!), CTEs, you name it. You can search for full or partial rows and see the whole query lineage – which intermediate rows from which CTEs/subqueries contributed to the result you're searching for. Entirely offline & no usage o…

https://dequery.io

This comment is still (surprisingly!) gaining traction, so leaving this here

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