Launch HN: VibeFlow (YC S25) – Web app generator with visual, editable workflows
The problem we’re trying to solve: today, people who want to build apps without coding often have to stitch together multiple tools, e.g. using Lovable for the frontend, n8n for workflows, and Supabase for the database. That creates data silos and leaves builders with fragile apps that break in production, don’t scale, and aren’t safe. We saw YouTube tutorials teaching people how to duct-tape these together just to get a functional app running. As engineers building no-code tools, we realized that people wanted the power of AI-generated UIs but also the ability to see and control their backend workflows and data.
Our solution is to generate the whole app at once, and represent it as a visual workflow. Users describe what they want in English (“I need a chat widget with an AI agent”) and VibeFlow generates both the interface and the logic. That logic shows up as a workflow graph they can edit visually or by giving new instructions.
We use Convex (https://www.convex.dev/) as backend. The generation of the backend code is fully deterministic, we map workflow graphs to code templates. This makes deployments predictable and avoids the hallucinated, black-box code you often get from AI.
Workflow representation: the logic is a directed graph where each node can be customized. We currently support CRUD operations and agent components. Any changes to the graph compiles directly back into code, so you always own the underlying logic.
Frontend: generated via AI and directly linked to workflow outputs, so it always stays in sync with the business logic. Changes to the frontend can be made through a chat interface.
Semi-technical builders can create maintainable apps (not opaque “magic”), and technical folks can still inspect the code and architecture. Compared to Bubble/Webflow, the interface is simpler; compared to Zapier, the workflows have an output code; and compared to AI coding assistants, you get an automatic backend plugged in with no black-box.
You can try it here: https://app.vibeflow.ai/. The demo video is https://youtu.be/-CwWd3-b1JI We'd love to hear from the HN community, whether you're a builder who's struggled with stitching tools together, a developer who's seen the pain points in no-code platforms, or someone curious about where AI-powered app generation is heading - we're eager for your thoughts!
The tech is still simply too hard to use effectively for the vast majority of lay people, especially for anything beyond a cool product demo
Some of it is due to quality of the models, some of it due t quality of the tooling
Prompt engineering is still a skill and that’s beyond what a casual user can figure out
The pace is too fast and you spend barely any time showing off your visual workflow feature, which according to your description is your differentiator.
I would strongly recommend using some of your YC money to have a professional recreate that demo and show off what makes you unique. Even if it goes longer than two minutes - if I’m interested I’ll keep watching.
I’ll still try it out because I’m a sucker for trying out new vibecoding tools, but you’re not doing yourself any favors with that video…
Are you happy with either product? I tried them earlier in the year, and it was also really slow to make changes. I felt like they got stuck after a bit, too.
It's a neat concept, but I feel like they're expensive templates. I'd honestly prefer a template gallery with a smooth and fast editing UI.
Every AI product that’s not a chatbot
For me, the most useful next nodes would be: 1) auth 2) stripe 3) file upload 4) convex action nodes (for more complex workflows)
That's why I think app generators must be a good editor before being able to generate anything. It seems you went this way with the cool node interface.
I'm doing the same thing with https://luna-park.app, but for fullstack apps.
It's not just about databases, think about all the users currently using n8n with Lovable separately, without even owning the full stack
– We spin up isolated projects for each user. Convex handles this seamlessly with zero manual setup, while Supabase/Firebase have limitations and manual configuration needed – We abstract backend logic as visual nodes, so Convex's modularity makes it logical to find the right granularity for workflow representation. – Everything is reactive, so UIs and workflows stay in sync without bolting on listeners – Everything is end-to-end TypeScript with transactions by default, so generated code is predictable and maintainable