Yes, it's happened. A software engineering team have vibe-coded almost all the key apps developed by good ole' Adobe and Microsoft.

The team, at ArtCraft (who already develop an open-source AI product), have sat down and, in a remarkably short time, developed apps that look (almost, but cunningly, not quite) like Microsoft Office 365 and the full Adobe Suite, as well as a couple of others. They're available for free on Windows, Mac and Linux. And before anyone says "they must be a load of cr*p", I have to say I've played extensively with WordCraft and GridCraft (I know, I know), and they're both very impressive. The WordCraft app even supports something that no other alternative office suite in my experience supports, namely Microsoft's "Content Controls", a sophisticated bit of SharePoint-injected XML typical of enterprise workflows.

You'll find all 13 apps, including a (rather elegant) launcher, at https://getartcraft.com/apps

Below the download links, you'll find full descriptions of the apps themselves. Disregard the iffy names: the actual apps look very professional. There have already been positive reviews in the IT press and elsewhere.

Oh, and you'll also find an extensive discussion of what they do and why they do it on GitHub at https://github.com/storytold/craft-launcher

I will admit, I'm somewhat blown away by this.

WELCOME TO SOFTWARE VENDOR RAGNAROK!

A GitHub repo called REA, short for Reverse Engineer Anything, lets your agent look inside any app and build your own version.

REA is an MCP server that lets you rebuild almost any software out there. It decompiles whatever app you point it at, then guides your AI agent to recreate the exact features you want.

How it works.You start by asking your agent something like, "How does this feature work? Can you build a version of it for me?" Your agent passes that request to REA, which connects it into decompiler (the tools engineers use to turn compiled apps back into human-readable code).

With each pass, REA returns pseudocode showing what the code does, along with supporting evidence and anything it couldn't solve. Your agent keeps iterating until the feature is completely rebuilt.

To get started, have your agent install REA for you, or run "npx rea-agents setup" yourself and restart your agent. Just make sure to stick to open-source software and apps or devices you own, since many terms of service forbid reverse engineering.

I don't know how many of the flood of new, or newly discovered, apps that have been posted here in the past month or so are vibecoded / AI assisted, but it's beginning to look like there's nothing new under the sun. How many outliners, editors, Scrivener or Logseq wannabes does the world need? (And the websites for these apps all seem to be pressed out of the same mold.)

Bernstein likes to write about "artisanal software". I hope that's not a designation that gets lost in this weird new world awash with pret-a-porter stuff made by AI.

Heh, thanks for the info about REA, @bartb; that must be a very tempting option for many coders!

And I can't help but agree with you, @Paul — lovely though so many of the latest app websites I've recently seen are, some of them do look strikingly similar. On the other hand, we've seen some strikingly original takes on note-takers, too, even those that readily disclose their use of AI tools (e.g. Vellum, Tine, Plainva...). So the definition of "artisanal software" may well need to be re-thought!

MadaboutDana wrote:

So the definition of "artisanal software" may well need to be re-thought!

"Software Untouched by Human Hands" -- has a moderne `50s vibe.