Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#1

Post by AxelWickman » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser
github.com

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#2

Post by jerome-jh » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

Do people solve business problems with OR-tools? I suppose yes, but what can you say about the real applications?

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#3

Post by algo_trader » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 6:58 PM UTC

this is nice

can the browser connect to a server to offload heavier calculations?

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#4

Post by aaronvg » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 7:56 PM UTC

this is really neat. Was using or-tools to solve my friend's scheduling problems with coworkers.

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#5

Post by AxelWickman » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC

algo_trader wrote: post #3

this is nice can the browser connect to a server to offload heavier calculations?

Yeah agree. Really considering taking the project this direction

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#6

Post by AxelWickman » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 11:02 PM UTC

jerome-jh wrote: post #2

Do people solve business problems with OR-tools? I suppose yes, but what can you say about the real applications?

In somewhat discrete domains with large combinatorial search spaces, I would argue they do. I built this for a conference planner SaaS, which felt very real. Probably have other use cases in routing, dispatching, staff scheduling, conference planning, shift assignment, warehouse picking, bin packing, fleet utilization, job-shop scheduling, matching supply and demand under constraints, etc.

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#7

Post by ge0ffrey » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 10:36 AM UTC

I wonder if the same can be done with Timefold's quickstarts https://github.com/TimefoldAI/timefold-quickstarts

Did you transpile OR tools's entire codebase from C++ to JavaScript with AI?

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#8

Post by ge0ffrey » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 10:39 AM UTC

AxelWickman wrote: post #5

algo_trader wrote: post #3

this is nice can the browser connect to a server to offload heavier calculations?

Yeah agree. Really considering taking the project this direction

Ideally, the solver doesn't just run on the backend, it's also orchestrated to run a pod per solver, with scale to zero.

Re: Show HN: Solving complex optimization problems with Google OR-Tools in browser

#9

Post by AxelWickman » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 12:15 PM UTC

ge0ffrey wrote: post #7

I wonder if the same can be done with Timefold's quickstarts https://github.com/TimefoldAI/timefold-quickstarts Did you transpile OR tools's entire codebase from C++ to JavaScript with AI?

Timefold tackles the same class of problems, but I thiink their's need a backend while mine runs in browser entirely. So mine works by running the C++ browser by compiling it directly to WebAssembly, so I didn't touch the solver code. The original library has bindings to python, so I did use AI to transpile that interface and tests so that the Typescript API mirrors the Python API.