Ask HN: How do solo devs protect their work in the age of vibe coding?

56 points by langs 81 days ago | 17 comments

I am working on a new open-source project. (My project is in AI infrastructure. It already gets SOTA results on several well-known benchmarks.) The core value is not just the code, but a fairly specific algorithmic approach that came out of many failed attempts, experiments, and design iterations.

The dilemma I am facing is this:

If I open-source early, I get feedback, trust, users, and maybe contributors. But I also expose the core design and algorithm. With LLMs, turning a repo into a different implementation is much cheaper than it used to be.

If I keep it closed, I protect the work for longer, but I also lose the main advantages of OSS: adoption, review, community, and credibility. Worse, someone else may still build something similar and become the default project in the space.

I’m a new solo dev with almost no audience. If a large org or a well-known developer sees the idea and ships a similar implementation, they can get more attention immediately than I can get in months. And in the end I get nothing for open-sourcing my project.

How would you handle this as a solo dev?

Areena_28 77 days ago |

The moat was never really the code....it was always the understanding that produced it. All those failed experiments and design iterations that led to the algorithm... that knowledge lives in your head, not the repo. Someone can clone the implementation, but they can't clone the reasoning behind every decision you made.

The audience problem is separate from the IP problem and worth solving on its own, start writing about the problem you're solving before you open-source anything.

ertok 80 days ago |

1) If it's open source, what's the incentive to steal from you anyway? It's free. That's one of the interesting moats in the age of AI.

2) If it's at risk of being stolen/copied today, it will be the same thing 10-100-1000 days from now. There is no hiding from AI copy cats. Just put it out there and find out if someone actually will want to do it. If yes, you saved yourself a bunch of time.

rosenlykke 75 days ago |

Solo dev in similar situation here. Agree with some of the other comments that the moat is not the code, especially in OSS.

I'm trying to find a sweet spot between the OSS part of the software and a potential premium feature set that would add enough value that people would be happy to pay for it. The OSS part becomes the validation of user need and distribution; the paid layer validates revenue.

If you couple that with great customer support you give people little reason to switch. In an age where everyone can build product, marketing/sales and customer support seems to be premium.

How we build retention with agents being the primary user/customer is another issue...

djyde 80 days ago |

If your open source code contains your technical barriers, then don't open source the code with those barriers—only open source the other parts.

If it's the other case, where you're worried about plagiarism, I actually don't think you need to be too concerned. I once saw an interview with Airbnb's founder Brian Chesky where he talked about how Airbnb also faced many imitators in its early days. These competitors grew rapidly too, but looking back, the difference between imitators and originals is that while imitators might get off to a quick start, they find it hard to persevere through difficulties like the original does in the mid-to-late stages. In the end, it's often the original who stuck with their vision that survives.

gitgud 80 days ago |

> I’m a new solo dev with almost no audience. If a large org or a well-known developer sees the idea and ships a similar implementation, they can get more attention immediately than I can get in months. And in the end I get nothing for open-sourcing my project.

This has always been a fear of open source development… but in reality it’s over exaggerated, thousands of FOSS ideas are posted every day…

My advice would be to treat posting your project like a launch, and get all the readme’s, docs etc ready before posting, so it has the best chance of growing an audience, which seems to be your goal.

But if you really don’t want other people to recycle your idea, then open source is not for you…

gajo357 80 days ago |

There is no way to protect your idea from being copied/stolen.

It happened a million times over, you have some brilliant idea, people start using it, and after a few months some big company puts 10-100 engineers on it and they do the same thing.

I would say that the key is to get to a big enough audience so they would rather buy you out than compete. Easier said than done :P

And the biggest question is: do you want to commit 100% of your time and money to building your company, or you would rather spend your time building new things?

anigbrowl 81 days ago |

Vibe litigation

Seriously, I think you should just do it closed source and pursue adoption by other channels. If people ask you why it's not open source, say you're not ready to manage it yet.

preetigagarwal 80 days ago |

API security is the most common blind spot. Vibe coding tools generate endpoints fast but almost never think about broken authentication, excessive data exposure, or injection flaws. A solo dev can ship a beautiful frontend with completely exposed APIs behind it. At minimum — test your own endpoints like an attacker would before going live.

comicink 80 days ago |

Open source but license it properly - AGPL works best if you are worried about someone making money off your idea. Honestly though with AI everything is copyable - wouldn't worry about that. Instead focus on the fastest path to get feedback and iterate

austin-cheney 76 days ago |

I prefer to write in TypeScript. The "moat" for any TypeScript artifacts is training/experience. Most people who write in this language, or especially JavaScript, cannot confidently write original code. They cannot architect, struggle to plan, and cannot navigate multi-dimensional data structures. So if you want to be safe from other humans just write in vanilla code without use of frameworks, dependencies, or code agents. The code can be exceptionally well organized, well commented with explicit instructions, and amazing clear to read and even still the idea of deviating away from a small collection of finite memorized patterns will be unforgivably emotionally traumatizing to most people who write in this language professionally.

That has down stream consequences as well. If developers feed logic they do not understand to an LLM and then use that output as though they wrote it themselves they own the consequences of those changes. Open source licenses frequently include a no warranty clause, but at the very least you can reach out to the authors and ask for guidance/assistance. No original author is going to spend their time decoding your AI slop when you haven't spent the time to understand the code in the first place.

shivang2607 81 days ago |

If you are building something which can be vibe-coded easily then it ofc people will create it. You can copyright a product but you can't copyright an Idea.

Selling things online was an idea by Amazon, now everyone sells online.

If you really want people not to copy your idea then make something which cannot be easily vibe-coded or copied easily i.e. which require serious skills.

bigyabai 81 days ago |

Is your project a vibe-coded application? It sounds like you're insecure about someone copying your idea, which will could happen regardless of licensing if anyone has access to Claude Code and a description of your product.

If your primary motivation to use an Open Source license is gaining trust and users, you're just going to be disappointed.

langs 81 days ago | |

I vide-coded some, but the core is hand-craft arch/algorithm, that's the most valuable part I want to protect.

faangguyindia 80 days ago | | |

Then it's already gone to AI servers. They slurp your codebase.

deafpolygon 75 days ago | | |

whatever AI you used already hoovered up your algo.

liam-chen 81 days ago | |

totally agree

red-iron-pine 80 days ago |

(posted on HN a couple of weeks back)