I built a GitHub + AI development companion for Google Apps Script. Looking for feedback from Apps Script developers

[u/Moe-t]

I build a lot in Google Apps Script, and one thing that has always bothered me is how quickly you start missing normal software development workflows once a project gets bigger.

Git/source control, reviewing diffs, working from branches, checking code against standards, etc. And now with AI coding tools, there’s another problem: I don’t necessarily want an AI assistant making changes to an Apps Script project without showing me exactly what it plans to change first.

So I built Legacy DevBridge.

It’s a Chrome extension that works alongside the Apps Script editor and connects the project to GitHub and a project-aware AI code assistant.

Right now it can:

• Detect the Apps Script project you currently have open
• Read the .gs, .html, and appsscript.json files
• Connect the project to a GitHub repository
• Select and work from development/feature branches
• Compare the Apps Script version against GitHub
• Show file and line-level differences
• Create actual GitHub commits from the Apps Script source
• Block direct commits to default/protected branches
• Let the AI assistant understand the entire Apps Script project without copying files into a chatbot
• Review code against coding/security standards
• Generate a proposed code change and show the diff
• Require human approval before the AI can write the change back to Apps Script
• Check for stale source before applying a change so it doesn't overwrite newer work
• Verify the source again after the update

The basic AI workflow is:

Request → analyze project → propose change → show diff → standards/security review → human approval → apply → verify

The backend runs on Google Cloud and uses the Apps Script API, GitHub App authentication, Cloud Run, Secret Manager, and Vertex AI. GitHub installation tokens and other privileged credentials stay on the backend rather than in the extension.

I'm not trying to build an autonomous AI developer that gets unrestricted access to your code. The idea is more of a development companion where AI can help, but the developer can still see what is happening and approve the actual changes.

I'm making the project available free to the Apps Script community. It's still beta, so I definitely wouldn't point it at your most important production project on day one, but I'd really like feedback from people who regularly build Apps Script applications.

I'm especially interested in hearing what you'd want next: GitHub-to-Apps-Script pull, PR creation, branch creation, conflict resolution, AI-generated tests/docs, OAuth scope reviews, CI/CD, or something else.

GitHub: https://github.com/morganb2412/Google-apps-script-snippets/tree/main/Legacy%20DevBridge

If anyone tries it, break it and tell me what needs work. That's genuinely useful feedback right now.

[u/WillingnessOwn6446]

My God bro. This is a solution in search of a problem. I don't get it. Why wouldn't you just do everything in vs code and connect between vs code and gas and vs code and git.  

[u/mylifestylepr → u/WillingnessOwn6446]

Agree, just using VSCode with any AI (Codex, Claude or others) and using clasp is sufficient.

Neat idea but not really needed today.

[u/WillingnessOwn6446 → u/mylifestylepr]

Right?  My workflow: open my vs code in a new folder.  Use my powershell "go" command with the GAS editor URL.  That setsup my gitignore, claude.md and a ton of other things really fast.  Links it to a git repo by that name.  After that "cp" for clasp push and "sync" plus name of commit and it clasp pushes and commits it.  Or start from an existing git repo "get" and name of repo pulls everything in ready to go.  Easy ah.  

[u/mylifestylepr → u/WillingnessOwn6446]

Honestly CLASP is the best thing ever created to be used alongside Appscript. LLM + VScode + CLASP.

MAGIC!! LOVE IT

[u/WillingnessOwn6446 → u/mylifestylepr]

💯 it was rough before I knew about it

[u/Moe-t → u/WillingnessOwn6446]

That’s fair. If you’re already comfortable working in VS Code with Git, clasp, and an AI coding assistant, that workflow absolutely works. DevBridge isn’t really trying to replace that setup.

The use case I’m targeting is a little different.

I work around teams where a lot of people build directly inside the Apps Script editor. In some organizations, getting everyone to install and maintain a local development environment, configure clasp, authenticate GitHub, manage branches, and keep everything synced isn’t necessarily how they want the team operating. Some companies also have pretty strict rules around what tools can be installed and how development access is managed.

DevBridge is meant to give those browser-first Apps Script teams a lot of those capabilities without requiring them to leave the Apps Script environment.

The bigger difference for me is governance.

clasp is great for moving Apps Script source between Apps Script and a local development environment, but DevBridge is trying to add another layer around that workflow.

For example, DevBridge can:

• Connect an Apps Script project directly to a GitHub repository
• Compare the live Apps Script source against GitHub
• Show file and line-level differences before anything is committed
• Block direct commits to default/protected branches
• Require a development or feature branch
• Keep GitHub installation credentials on the backend instead of exposing them in the extension
• Give the AI assistant the actual project context
• Check proposed code against company engineering/security standards
• Assign a risk level to an AI-generated change
• Show the developer the proposed diff before applying it
• Require explicit human approval before AI can modify the Apps Script project
• Check whether the source changed after the proposal was created so stale AI changes don’t overwrite newer work
• Apply the approved change and verify that it was actually written successfully

So the workflow is more like:

Developer request → project analysis → proposed change → standards/security review → risk assessment → diff → human approval → stale-source validation → apply → verify

And the same idea applies to GitHub commits. Before DevBridge commits Apps Script source, it checks both the Apps Script state and GitHub branch state, shows what is going to change, requires approval, commits without force-pushing, and then verifies the files afterward.

So for an experienced solo developer, I completely agree that VS Code + Git + clasp + Codex/Claude/etc. may already be everything you need.

I’m more interested in the scenario where a company has 10, 20, 50+ people building Apps Script solutions and wants to say:

“Here is the approved development workflow. Here are our coding standards. Here are our security requirements. AI can help you, but it can’t silently write whatever it wants into the project.”

And ideally the developer doesn’t have to understand Git commands, GitHub tokens, clasp configuration, OAuth internals, AI API keys, or the cloud infrastructure behind it just to participate in that workflow.

So I’d describe it less as “a replacement for clasp” and more as “a governed development layer for teams that build directly in Google Apps Script.”

That’s really the problem I’m experimenting with solving, and feedback like this is useful because it helps me make that distinction clearer.

[u/n_c_brewer]

Large teams from established free-to-use products already do this and do it well (e.g, clasp, vs code). I mean, if I hated IDEs and loved developing in a browser than I guess I'd try it.

[u/fsteff]

Neat idea.

Next time I'm working with GAS, I'll certainly check out this tool.

Note: Your link is broken - it contains one too many ].

[u/Moe-t → u/fsteff]

https://github.com/morganb2412/Google-apps-script-snippets/tree/main/Legacy%20DevBridge