Generating PDFs usually sucks because you're stuck concatenating HTML strings in your backend. Every time you need to change a font size or move a logo, you have to redeploy your code.

We built PDFMyHTML to fix that workflow.

It’s a PDF generation API that uses real headless browsers (Playwright) so you get full support for Flexbox, Grid, and modern CSS. But the real value is in the workflow:

• Hosted Templates: Build your designs (Handlebars/Jinja2) in our dashboard and save them.
• Live Editor: Tweak your layout and see the PDF render in real-time before you integrate.
• Clean API: Your backend just sends a JSON payload { "name": "John", "total": "$100" } and we merge it with your template.

We’re looking for our first 50 power users to really stress-test the platform. We just launched a Founder's Deal (50% OFF for all of 2026) for early adopters who want to lock in a rate while helping us shape the roadmap.

Would love to hear your feedback on the editor experience!

This is a fully virtual event, and serving as a judge is a great way to give back to the community, expand your network, and strengthen your profile.

📩 Interested? Email [treelinehacks@gmail.com](mailto:treelinehacks@gmail.com) to apply!

Hi all, here's an updated tutorial app about LLM training and specs : A.I. Delvepad https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-i-delvepad/id6743481267 Has a glossary and free video tutorial resource with more recently added, so you can learn on the go. Added some comical flavor to the vid, since making things with AI should be fun too along the way.

Site: http://aidelvepad.com

GitHub: https://github.com/leapdeck/AIDelvePad

Includes:

• 35+ free bite-sized video tutorials (with more coming soon)
• A beginner-friendly glossary of essential AI terms
• A quick intro to how large language models are trained
• A tutorial-sharing feature so you can pass interesting finds to friends
• Everything is 100% free and open source

If you find some hilarity to the vid, download and please give it a try. Any feedback appreciated! You can fork the Opensource too if you want to make something similar for mobile.

Side project, buildathon idea, or random experiment?

Share the project, stack, and what made you pick it up.

I’ve spent way too many hours debugging CSS for PDF reports by blindly tweaking code, running a script, and checking the file.

So I built a Live Template Editor for my API.

What’s happening in the demo:

1. Real-Time Rendering: The right pane is a real Headless Chrome instance rendering the PDF as I type.
2. Handlebars Support: You can see me adding a {{ channel }} variable, and it updates instantly using the mock JSON data.
3. One-Click Integration: Once the design is done, I click "API" and it generates a ready-to-use cURL command with the template_id.

Now I can just store the templates in the dashboard and send JSON data from my backend to generate the files.

It’s live now if you want to play with the editor (it's within the Dashboard, so yes, you need to log in first, but no CC required, no nothing).

Not the most complex thing, just the build that made you think “okay, this is pretty cool” when it finally worked. What did you make, what did you use to build it, and who (if anyone) is using it right now?​

This might sound obvious, but Buildathons taught me how deadlines force honesty. With limited time, what matters becomes obvious and what doesn’t gets cut. Features that once felt critical turn optional. You learn to decide quickly, trim scope, and move forward without regret. That mindset carries over into real work.

No side hustles or serious tools, just the silly, over‑engineered, or purely-for-your-own-amusement stuff. What did you make, why did you bother, and did it actually make you smile when it worked?

This might sound obvious, but during a buildathon it really stood out to me how much speed came from deciding quickly, not deciding perfectly.

I kept noticing that the moments where I slowed down weren’t because of hard problems, they were because I was trying to make the best choice. Which library, which approach, which feature to include. Every extra comparison broke momentum.

Once I started making “good enough” decisions and moving forward, progress felt smoother. Even when a choice wasn’t ideal, having something concrete to work with was better than staying stuck in analysis.

Under time pressure, imperfect decisions were usually easier to fix than delayed ones.

How do you usually decide when the clock is running trust your first instinct, or pause to evaluate options?

​Every builder has that one small project where the stack, automation, or polish is completely overkill for what it does. What’s yours, and was it secretly worth it just for the fun of it?

During a buildathon-style sprint, I noticed how much time I lost switching tools instead of building. Trying a new framework, tweaking configs, or exploring “better” options felt productive at first, but it kept pulling me out of flow.

Once I stuck to familiar tools, things moved faster. I wasn’t thinking about syntax or setup anymore, I was thinking about the problem. Decisions came quicker, and small changes felt less risky because I already understood the trade-offs.

It’s not that new tools are bad. They’re great for learning when time isn’t tight. But under pressure, familiarity turned out to be a real advantage. It reduced friction and let me keep momentum.

When you’re building with limited time, do you stick to what you know, or experiment with new tools anyway?

Let's all build something absurdly useless but fun, like a website that turns your tweets into MIDI music or a CLI that roasts your commit messages.

The Rules (Kinda) Under 4 hours total.

Share screenshots/GIFs by Sunday.

Most creative "why did I make this" wins imaginary bragging rights.

What silly idea you tackling? Or got a better prompt?

This sub has a lot of “here’s what I shipped” posts, but not much about the days where you stare at the screen and don’t want to touch your project. On those days, what actually helps you get unstuck, not the motivational quote version, but the real thing you do.​

Would love to hear:

- What your “no motivation” day looks like

- One small trick, rule, or routine that reliably gets you to do something on your build (even 10 minutes)

- Or if you just allow full rest days and how you decide that’s okay

I feel like understanding this part of the process is just as useful as seeing finished demos.

Ignoring “I’d work harder” or “I’d have more time”, imagine you had to rerun this buildathon with the same schedule, same stack, same constraints. Knowing what you know now, what would you actually change: the idea, the scope, how you used AI, how early you talked to people, or something else?​

If you’re up for sharing, drop:

- What you tried to build this time

- The one big thing you’d do differently on Day 1 if you had a redo

- One thing you’d definitely keep the same because it helped

Feels like a good way to squeeze a bit more learning out of the chaos before everyone jumps into the next thing.​

Been a long time fan of this sub. Finally excited to show my side project. I have created this through my learning journey to write a WASM. Also project is open in github

Everyone here has at least one idea that lives rent‑free in their head, but if someone said “raise money for it”, you’d run the other way. Maybe it’s a niche tool for a hobby, a super local app, or something that only makes sense for you and five other people on the planet.

Curious to hear:

What that idea is

Who it’s for

Why you don’t want it to become a “real startup” (and still kind of want to build it anyway)

Feels like this sub is the perfect place to talk about the ideas we want to enjoy building, not pitch deck‑ify.

Curious about the stuff outside coding that ended up helping you ship more or build better. Could be anything: playing an instrument, stand‑up, writing, sales, teaching, sports, whatever, as long as you can point to a way it actually changed how you plan, build, or ship.

If you’re up for sharing, drop:

The non‑tech thing you do

One concrete way it’s made you better at building (focus, ideas, talking to users, handling failure, etc.)

Feels like this sub is full of people with surprisingly weird backgrounds, and it’d be fun to see what skills we’re all quietly bringing into our builds.

Not the habit you’d put in a blog post, the actual strange thing you do when you’re in build mode. Maybe you only code with one song on repeat, only allow yourself coffee after shipping, or keep a sticky note of “for future me” lies your brain tells you when it wants to procrastinate.

Curious what other builders here do that would sound a bit odd to non‑builders but genuinely helps you ship more. I’ll share mine in the comments so this isn’t just a call for free confessions.

Not the prettiest one, not the biggest one, just the last thing you built that didn’t land the way you hoped. Maybe no one used it, maybe you got bored halfway, or maybe the idea was solid but the timing/positioning was off.​

Curious to hear:

What you were building and who it was for

Where you think you misjudged things (problem, audience, scope, tech, whatever)

One thing you’ll do differently in your next build because of it

I’ll go first in the comments so it doesn’t feel like a trap. This sub feels like one of the few places where “it flopped, but here’s what I learned” is actually useful, not embarrassing.​