I’m a software developer. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with microcontrollers and Arduino. Recently, I wanted to build a simple ESP32 project, and I realized I was basically still using tools and workflows from 2015. The overall approach to microcontroller development feels like it hasn’t changed much.
I’ve also noticed that many embedded engineers are very resistant to AI. But when I ask how they’ve actually used it, it often turns out they’ve only tried copying and pasting code from ChatGPT. That is very different from using the kind of workflows that us software devs now use every day.
So I started thinking about making an open-source project around this idea: using OpenCode, which has built-in free models, and building tools around it so embedded developers can try a real AI coding harness for microcontroller development.
I’m very flexible about the direction of the project. My main goal is to build an AI-powered tool that actually helps embedded developers.
I’d love to hear your comments, criticisms, and ideas. What would make an AI tool genuinely useful for embedded development?