Hi HN, I'm Thomas. I built Cynical Sally as a solo developer using AI assistants as my team. I've got no employees and no funding besides my own bank account that's getting emptier by the day, lol.

https://github.com/w1ckedxt/cynicalsally-cli

Sally is an AI code reviewer with a consistent personality. She scores your code 0-10, finds real issues with evidence, and gives you actionable fixes. Her words, not mine:

"Everyone has opinions. Mine just happen to be evidence-based."

What makes her different from "paste into ChatGPT":

- 6 specialised tools: code review, explain, refactor, PR review, brainstorm, frontend + marketing review - Works as CLI and MCP server (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) - CI/CD ready with --fail-under flag for build gates - One consistent personality across all platforms

Try it right now, no account needed!

npm install -g @cynicalsally/cli

90 free roasts/month. Every premium tool has one free trial so you can see if her feedback and Full Suite is worth paying for.

She also reviews websites, CVs, and pretty much anything at cynicalsally.com, and as a Chrome/Safari extension, but the CLI is where developers live so that's where the code/project value resides.

Fun fact: Render offered somebody else a collab through a Reddit comment and I commented "I'd like to do thatas well!" or something to that effect. They hit me up and I've been building Sally from the ground up after the initial traction on Reddit via comments.

Built with: Node.js, Claude API (Anthropic), deployed on Render. Happy to answer questions about the architecture or how I built an entire multi-platform product solo.

user:	shifra-dev
created:	January 5, 2026
karma:	1