SaaS Metrics
Hi HN, I'm Hang, cofounder of InsForge (YC P26). InsForge is an open-source Heroku for AI coding agents: a backend platform designed for coding agents to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end. Open source under Apache 2.0 (https://github.com/InsForge/InsForge). Quick demo here (https://youtu.be/7Bax5qz0IfM).We started InsForge because we just wanted our Claude Code to handle all the backend / infra stuff for us, instead of us jumping between dashboards doing manual config, or copy paste logs and docs back to agents.We first tried creating a folder with bunch of .MD files, and installing MCPs like Supabase, Vercel, GitHub, Context7. But soon we found MCPs have their own problems: (a) Tools get pre-loaded into context, before agents even do anything (b) bad design, payloads are returning 10k+ tokens, and (c) a lot of stuff still can’t be done by MCP: e.g. telemetry and configs.So we think, because coding agents are so good at CLI, why not just put everything in CLI and create Skills to teach them how to use it?That’s InsForge: 1 command to install our CLI + Skills, coding agents can run the entire backend platform [1].We started with authentication and database, but we kept adding more primitives we wanted, so now we have: - frontend hosting - backend servers (microVM based) [2] - database - auth - storage - LLM model router - cron jobs - realtime - edge functions - vectorWe have other features to make coding agents more reliable like real backend engineers:- backend branching [3]: agents will 100% mess up, like deleting your database. So inspired by Neon, we branch the entire backend (DB, auth, storage, functions, schedules). Agents work on the branch, you review diffs and then decide to merge or discard.
- server telemetry: agents can read logs, CPU, memory, disk to find spikes and root causes themselves.- debug agent [4]: every project gets a dedicated debug agent. So your coding agent can ask questions like “why deployment fail?”, the debug agent will run diagnoses, find the root causes and propose fixes, then send the answer back.- backend advisor [5]: scans your backend daily for security and performance issues, proposes fixes. Then propose remediations, and sends to your coding agent.Give it a spin on InsForge cloud :https://insforge.dev, or read our code here: https://github.com/InsForge/InsForge.We're a small team and reading every comment. Tell us what's good, what sucks, what's missing. We love feedback :)[1] https://insforge.dev/blog/insforge-skills-cli[2] https://insforge.dev/blog/insforge-custom-compute[3] https://insforge.dev/blog/backend-branching[4] https://insforge.dev/blog/introduce-debug-skills[5] https://insforge.dev/blog/backend-health-dashboard
Show HN: InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents
An open-source Heroku for AI coding agents, designed to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end, addressing limitations of existing MCPs by focusing on CLI and 'Skills' for agents.
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AI Executive Synthesis
An open-source Heroku for AI coding agents, designed to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end, addressing limitations of existing MCPs by focusing on CLI and 'Skills' for agents.
InsForge directly addresses critical infrastructure gaps for AI coding agents, positioning itself as an 'open-source Heroku' for this emerging domain. The identified developer pain points—manual configuration, excessive token payloads from existing MCPs, and lack of agent-specific telemetry—underscore the immaturity of current agent tooling. Its solution, a CLI-centric platform with 'Skills,' backend branching, dedicated debug agents, and security advisors, establishes a robust framework for agent deployment and management. This product capitalizes on the accelerating trend of autonomous agents requiring specialized, reliable, and secure backend environments, moving beyond general-purpose cloud platforms to agent-native solutions.
Related Ecosystem & Alternatives
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Deep-Dive FAQs
What is InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents?
InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents is analyzed by our AI as: An open-source Heroku for AI coding agents, designed to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end, addressing limitations of existing MCPs by focusing on CLI and 'Skills' for agents.. It focuses on InsForge directly addresses critical infrastructure gaps for AI coding agents, positioning itself as an 'open-source Heroku' for this emerging doma...
Where did InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents originate?
Data for InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents was aggregated directly from the Hacker News community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents within our tracked developer communities was recorded on May 19, 2026.
How popular is InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents?
InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents has achieved measurable traction, logging over 38 traction score and facilitating 6 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents?
Based on metadata extraction, InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents is categorized under topics such as: open-source, Apache 2.0, AI coding agents, backend platform.
What are some commercial alternatives to InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as Invoke, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe InsForge – Open-source Heroku for coding agents?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "Hi HN, I'm Hang, cofounder of InsForge (YC P26). InsForge is an open-source Heroku for AI coding agents: a backend platform designed for coding agents to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end. Open..."
Community Voice & Feedback
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Hey Hang, thanks for sharing it and a cool product, I will try this out, just noticed that https://insforge.dev/ does not have any trust portal or security page, you can create one by using sekorti in 5 minutes.
Congrats on the launch. Currently all my hobby projects go like procure auth from clerk, database from neon, vercel/cloudflare for deployment, etc etc. This could actually solve that problem. Is there a local simulator that can be used for testing and then replicated easily in prod?
Nice one!
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Congrats on the launch! I recently tried InsForge for a personal project a few weeks ago and thought the getting started experience was really smooth.
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Here are few things we're working on next around safety:- Dynamic permissions for agents: agents get API keys with limited scope. Whenever they need to expand the permission, they will ask you for approval. And the expanded scope only applies to the CURRENT task.- Reversible: Git for backend. All the write operations will be snapshotted, so if agents make terrible mistakes, you can always roll back.
Discovery Source
Hacker News Aggregated via automated community intelligence tracking.
Tech Stack Dependencies
No direct open-source NPM package mentions detected in the product documentation.
Media Tractions & Mentions
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Deep Research & Science
No direct peer-reviewed scientific literature matched with this product's architecture.