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Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

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Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#161

Post by fragmede »

brandonchen wrote: post #149
fragmede wrote: post #138

Sounds pretty interesting, I was thinking that would be the way to work past limited context window sizes automatically. > Codebuff has limited free usage, but if you like it you can pay $99/mo to get more credits... > One user racked up a $500 bill... Those two statements are kind of confusing together. Past the free tier, what does $99/month get you? It sounds like there's some sort of credit, but that's not discus…

Ah, good catch. We (read: I) introduced a bug that gave customers $500 worth of credits in a month as opposed to the $100 they paid for, and this user saw that and took advantage. Needless to say, we fixed the issue and added more copy to show to users when they _do_ exceed their thresholds. We haven't had that issue since. And of course, we ate the cost because it was our (expensive!) mistake. The user had spent the…

Oh I see. it's an interesting story and thanks for the transparency. Might leave that out of the pitch as it's confusing and the thought of running up a $500 bill is scary and since the user ultimately didn't pay for it, seems like noise.

Have you considered a bring your own api key model?

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#162

Post by benreesman »

I really like the vibes on this: the YouTube video is pretty good, there’s a little tongue-in-cheek humor but it’s good natured, and the transparency around how it came together at the last minute is a great story.

It’s a crowded space and I don’t know how it’ll play, but in a space that hasn’t always brought out the best in the community, this Launch HN is a winner in my book.

I hope it goes great. Congratulations on the launch.

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#163

Post by jahooma »

benreesman wrote: post #162

I really like the vibes on this: the YouTube video is pretty good, there’s a little tongue-in-cheek humor but it’s good natured, and the transparency around how it came together at the last minute is a great story. It’s a crowded space and I don’t know how it’ll play, but in a space that hasn’t always brought out the best in the community, this Launch HN is a winner in my book. I hope it goes great. Congratulations o…

Thank you for the very kind comment!

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#164

Post by brandonchen »

benreesman wrote: post #162

I really like the vibes on this: the YouTube video is pretty good, there’s a little tongue-in-cheek humor but it’s good natured, and the transparency around how it came together at the last minute is a great story. It’s a crowded space and I don’t know how it’ll play, but in a space that hasn’t always brought out the best in the community, this Launch HN is a winner in my book. I hope it goes great. Congratulations o…

Tongue-in-cheek! No idea what you're talking about. But I appreciate the kind words :)

Ultimately, I think a future where the limit to good software is good ideas and agency to realize them, as opposed to engineering black boxes, mucking with mysterious runtime errors, holy wars on coding styles, etc. is where all the builders in this space are striving towards. We just want to see that happen sooner than later!

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#165

Post by jahooma »

mediaman wrote: post #131
jahooma wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Codebuff is the easiest to use of all these, because you just chat, and it finds all the right files to edit. There's no clicking and you don't have to confirm edits. It is also a true agent. It can run terminal commands to aid the request. For one request it could: 1. Write a unit test 2. Run the test 3. Edit code to fix the error 4. Run it again and see it pass If you try out Codebuff, I think you'll see why it's u…

Can codebuff handle larger files (6,000 loc) and find the right classes/functions in that code, or if it finds the file with the necessary info does it load the entire file in?

I think it would handle the giant file, but it would definitely pull the whole thing into context.

We are doing some tricks so it should be able to edit the file without rewriting it, but occasionally that fails and we fallback to rewriting it all, which may time out on such a file.

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#166

Post by cratermoon »

jahooma wrote: post #127
petesergeant wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We build a description of the codebase including the file tree and parsed function names and class names This sounds like RAG and also that you’re building an index? Did you just mean that you’re not using vector search over embeddings for the retrieval part, or have I missed something fundamental here?

Ah yeah, that's what I mean! I thought RAG is synonymous with this vector search approach. Either way, we do the search step a little different and it works well.

Any kind of search prior for content to provide as context to the LLM prompt is RAG. The goal is to leverage traditional information retrieval as a source of context. https://cloud.google.com/use-cases/retrieval-augmented-gener...

I'm currently working on a demonstration/POC system using my ElasticSearch as my content source, generating embeddings from that content, and passing them to my local LLM.

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#167

Post by keithalewis »

jahooma wrote: post #33
hiatus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is a bit suspicious given that your previous submissions are limited to manifold market links, and this tool came from that company.

Yes, he's the lead Manifold eng. Please discount appropriately.

HN spamtroturfing one of their own startups? I'm shocked, shocked!

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#168

Post by petesergeant »

cratermoon wrote: post #166
jahooma wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yeah, that's what I mean! I thought RAG is synonymous with this vector search approach. Either way, we do the search step a little different and it works well.

Any kind of search prior for content to provide as context to the LLM prompt is RAG. The goal is to leverage traditional information retrieval as a source of context. https://cloud.google.com/use-cases/retrieval-augmented-gener... I'm currently working on a demonstration/POC system using my ElasticSearch as my content source, generating embeddings from that content, and passing them to my local LLM.

It would be cool to be talking to other people about the RAG systems they’re building. I’m working in a silo at the moment, and pretty sure that I’m reinventing a lot of techniques

Re: Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

#169

Post by brandonchen »

tyre wrote: post #160
jahooma wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you. This is actually a foundational idea for Codebuff. I made it to work within the large-ish codebase of my previous startup, Manifold Markets. I want the demos to be of real work, but somehow they never seem as cool unless it's a neat front end toy example. Here is the demo video I sent in my application to YC, which shows it doing real stuff: https://www.loom.com/share/fd4bced4eff94095a09c6a19b7f7f45c?...

This comment makes me think of Coke vs. Pepsi. Historically, Pepsi won taste tests and people chose Coke. Because Pepsi is sweeter, so that first sip tastes better. But it's less satisfying—too sweet—to drink a whole can. The sexy demos don't, in my opinion and experience, win over the engineers and leaders you need. Lil startups, maybe, and engineers that love the flavor of the week. But for solving real, unsexy pro…

> The sexy demos don't, in my opinion and experience, win over the engineers and leaders you need.

Great point, we're in talks with a company and this exact issue came up. An engineer used Codebuff over a weekend to build a demo app, but the CEO wasn't particularly interested even after he enthusiastically explained what he made. It was only when the engineer later used Codebuff to connect the demo app to their systems that the CEO saw the potential. Figuring out how to help these two stakeholders align with one another will be a key challenge for us as we grow. Thanks for the thought!

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