Show HN: Dyad – free, local, open-source AI app builder (v0/lovable alternative)
I'm excited to share a free, local, open-source AI app builder that I created. You can see what it looks like and download it here: https://dyad.sh/
It's open-source and on GitHub: https://github.com/dyad-sh/dyad
If you've used one of the popular AI app builders like v0, lovable and bolt, but want something more flexible and without the lock-in, I think you'll like dyad.
note: dyad isn't an IDE (and not another VS code fork :) and instead is focused on people, esp. non-coders, who want an all-in-one tool to build+preview web apps in a simple intuitive desktop UI.
Here's a few things that makes it different:
- Runs locally - Dyad runs entirely on your computer, making it fast and frictionless. Because your code lives locally, you can easily switch back and forth between Dyad and your IDE like Cursor, etc.
- Run local models - I've just added Ollama integration (https://www.dyad.sh/docs/guides/ai-models/local-models), which lets you build with your favorite local LLMs.
- Free - Dyad is free and bring-your-own API key. This means you can use your free Gemini API key and get 25 free messages/day with Gemini Pro 2.5!
I’d love any feedback. Thanks!
But it does local models via ollama, supports multiple chats, and can get an app stood up just the same as Bolt, v0, Lovable, et al.
Stoked this is being built, looking forward to seeing what it becomes!
Regarding the localness, are you optimizing or targeting users that prefer only local inference? The part about API keys at the end makes me wonder if there's any practical difference outside of lower local resource requirements and access to private models on the clound.
Do you recommend or force that people use any specific languages or frameworks that dyad is optimized to render or iterate on locally?
I definitely want to support users who want to use cloud inference or local inference because you do need a pretty beefy machine to run the top open source models.
Right now Dyad supports React (vite), but i'm working on supporting more frameworks in the future! (other languages is probably further off)
I think practically, the nice part with Dyad is that all the code is on your computer, so if you want to switch back and forth with Cursor/VS Code, it's seamless.