Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Concept & Appeal

  • Many commenters like the “home-cooked apps for friends” idea and compare it to digital sticky notes or HyperCard-style tools: small, personal, playful apps for narrow needs.
  • Several share anecdotes of tiny apps (maps of walks, diet checklists, simple calculators) that brought outsized joy despite zero financial upside.

Comparisons & Precedents

  • Strong “this is HyperCard / VB / MS Access / Delphi in the browser” vibes; multiple people say we keep reinventing HyperCard.
  • Spreadsheets are repeatedly cited as the most successful end-user programming environment; some argue Scrappy is essentially “a worse Excel” unless it surpasses spreadsheets.
  • Similar or related tools mentioned: CardStock, Decker, CodeBoot, Hyperclay, TiddlyWiki, Google Forms/SharePoint, Godot, MSHTA, and low-code-style workflows.

Hosting, Distribution & Longevity

  • A major pain point: easy, free, low-friction sharing and hosting. App stores, domains, VPSs, and self-hosting are seen as too much effort for casual apps.
  • Some argue self-hosting for family is already too technical or costly.
  • Strong concern about dependence on yet another SaaS for long-lived personal tools; people want offline-capable, self-contained artifacts (e.g., single HTML files).
  • Scrappy creators clarify: it’s local-first, uses Yjs + a lightweight sync server, and no traditional backend or analytics.

Target Users & UX

  • Debate over who this is actually for: people who can write JavaScript handlers but not spin up React are considered a very narrow audience.
  • Critics say non-programmers still face a learning curve (raw JS, no autocomplete/AI help, some UI quirks/bugs), while real developers prefer their usual stack.
  • Others think the core opportunity is social: family/friend “micro app stores” with low security and invite-only sharing.

Role of LLMs / “Vibe Coding”

  • Many say LLMs plus vanilla JS/HTML (and GitHub Pages/localStorage) already fill this niche; “vibe coding” small apps is easy and visually decent.
  • Counterpoint: LLM-generated code tends to be buggy and intimidating to non-programmers; structured tools like Scrappy might be friendlier if polished.

Mobile & Platform Constraints

  • Apple’s ecosystem is criticized as hostile to hobbyist native apps, pushing people to the web.
  • Some argue mobile editing is crucial, since many users only own phones; the current desktop-focused editing stance is seen as limiting.