Smithable is an app builder for people who have never written code and for developers who want to move faster. You describe a web application in plain language or through a visual editor. Smithable turns it into a compact, technology-neutral specification, smithable.yml, and generates an ordinary full-stack web application from it.
The difference from prompt-to-code builders: Smithable understands the application. Routine changes are made by deterministic generators, not by an AI rewriting code. Adding a phone number to customers is one operation, in milliseconds, for no tokens; a request that needs interpretation goes to the cheapest capable model with a small slice of the spec. A supported change is checked, migrated with the records kept, tested and can be undone; most cost nothing (in the M7 benchmark, one CRM, one run per setup), and the generated code stays clean enough for a developer to take over. Why this matters and who it is for: docs/VISION.md.
Status: beta. The engine, CLI, Studio and MCP server in this repository work on their own, on your machine, with no account. The hosted service (smithable.ai, a private beta) lives in a separate repository and builds on them: we can run it, but it's all yours.
Quick start (Node 24):
npx smithable@latest new my-crm
cd my-crm
npx smithable@latest studio
Try it in the browser: the theme lab puts a theme on a starter's real pages, with no install and no sign-in; the hosted beta is at smithable.ai.
Built by Åland IT AB, in the Åland Islands, Finland.
Documentation: docs.smithable.ai: getting started, the ten starters (seven of them shown on smithable.ai), changing an app without code, running an app on your own machine and the spec reference.
What a generated app is
A TanStack Start app with React, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, Drizzle and SQLite, written the way a developer who knows that stack would write it. It has no dependency on Smithable at build time or run time, ships as a container with a /data volume, carries its own tests, and can be detached at any time.
Try it
Node 24, then:
npm install -g smithable # or run any command once with npx smithable@latest
smithable --version # smithable 0.1.0 (spec 0.1)
smithable new my-crm # a CRM from the starter, with sample data
smithable new torget --starter marketplace # or booking, invoicing, records, status, api
smithable new dogs --describe "a site to show my dogs" # up to three questions, then a draft (needs a model, docs/ai.md)
smithable new cafe --from https://example.com # a page as the description; --with-pictures takes its pictures
cd my-crm && smithable studio # the editor, with Smith, in the browser
From inside a project, the everyday commands:
smithable op addField Customer taxId string # a deterministic change: spec, migration, forms, tables
smithable ask "Customers should have a website" # in your own words; confirmed before it applies
smithable undo # takes back the last change, database included
smithable mcp # the same operations as tools for Claude Code, Cursor, …
smithable deploy --target docker # release checks, then the container
To work on Smithable itself, from a clone: pnpm install, pnpm build, then node packages/cli/dist/bin.js in place of smithable (CONTRIBUTING.md).
The ten starters, with pictures: docs.smithable.ai/starters. smithable --help lists everything. Models for ask, code and teach are set up with environment variables: docs/ai.md. deploy, security --level release and the container tests need Docker; running an app on your own machine covers deploying, backups and updates.
The repository
| Path | What it is |
|---|
packages/core | The engine: spec schema, parser, validator, IR, operations, plugin interface. Runs in the browser and Node |
packages/adapter-tanstack | The generator for the TanStack stack, and the app kit it copies into apps |
packages/index | The implementation index, the context builder for AI, the plain-language summary |
packages/ai | Model providers, the AI policy, requests to operations |
packages/cli | The smithable command, the Studio server, the MCP server, deploy and backup targets |
packages/create-smithable | npm create smithable, which starts an app with smithable new (on npm, like the other packages) |
apps/studio | The editor: Smith, the preview, and the No code and Code views (called Builder and Studio in the source), one web app served by smithable studio |
examples/ | The starters: a CRM, a booking site, an invoicing app, a marketplace (Torget), records (things and what we know about them), and a status page |
docs/ | The pages of docs.smithable.ai (docs/site/), vision, architecture, roadmap, the spec reference, AI setup, how things were built and measured, benchmarks and research |
Working on it
pnpm check is the gate: lint, build, unit tests, then every example generated, type-checked, built, served and regenerated, and Studio driven in a real browser. Before a change to the engine, the examples or the scripts it runs, run it locally through scripts/gate.sh, which lets only one full gate run on a machine at a time; for docs and tooling, CI's run on the pull request is the gate. CLAUDE.md holds the rules that keep the design honest, such as: smithable.yml is authoritative, every change goes through operations, generated apps never depend on Smithable, generation is byte-identical, and every change can be undone. How to contribute, and what to read first: CONTRIBUTING.md; conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
License
Smithable is licensed under Apache-2.0. The app kit and templates that are copied into every generated app are licensed under 0BSD, so a generated app carries no obligations from this repository. Contributions are accepted with a DCO sign-off; vulnerabilities go to [email protected].
