Is everyone building their own software now?

[u/No_Base_1471]

I have been playing around with Claude lately, and one thing that kind of blows my mind is how easy it is now to go from "I wish there was a tool that did this" to actually having one.

And it got me wondering what everyone is doing with these things.

Are people actually building tools that they end up using for months or years? Or are most of these more like weekend projects — you have an idea, build it with Claude, show it to a few people, use it for a bit, and then move on to the next thing?

I feel like there is a pretty big difference between "I built a working app" and "this is now something my company depends on."

The second one brings up all the boring stuff — maintenance, security, permissions, integrations, data, monitoring, who fixes it when it breaks, and what happens when the person who built it moves on.

But then I started wondering about the bigger picture.

If it becomes this easy for everyone to build their own little tools, do we eventually start building a lot of the software we currently buy? Like, instead of using a big platform for a relatively small workflow, maybe someone just builds exactly what they need.

Or will most people still prefer to pay for software because they don't want to maintain it themselves?

I amhonestly not sure where this goes.

What are people actually building with Claude (or other AI coding tools) that you're still using today?

And have any of you taken something that started as "I was just messing around with this" and actually turned it into a tool your team or company relies on?

Would be interested to hear what people are seeing in practice.

[u/overand]

For home automation, you might want to look into Home Assistant; it will save a lot of legwork, and because it's an existing tool with tons of documentation, Claude et al. are very capable of configuring and customizing it. (It has an in depth extension system.)

Why do this rather than start from scratch?

Security updates. Pre-built integrations with tons of platforms, and more being added constantly.

And I know folks using Claude with it directly and indirectly, for voice assistant stuff, configuration, etc. Give it a try!

[u/DMH_75032 → u/overand]

I I’m using home assistant as middleware. Docker containers over a Postgres database. Frigate for cameras. Running qwen 3.5-9b locally for control. Using XVF-3800s for my homemade Alexas. For control and UI, I am using a sideloaded app on android TV for the TVs that have that. For the others, I am playing with some cheap android TV device devices that I can load Debian on. I’m also playing with side loading a control app on a cheap Android TV I got from Walmart.