Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)
This month's "Ask HN" showcases a vibrant tapestry of individual projects, ranging from AI-powered development tools and game creation to personal utilities and hardware builds. The community engages actively, sharing diverse technical challenges, offering feedback, and seeking collaboration. It highlights Hacker News as a thriving hub for innovation and self-directed learning.
The Lowdown
The "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)" thread once again brought forth an impressive array of projects from the Hacker News community. This recurring post provides a unique snapshot of what technically inclined individuals are building, often driven by personal needs, curiosity, or a desire to solve complex problems.
- A significant portion of projects revolved around AI and Large Language Models, including personal internet archives with LLM summarization, AI agent orchestration platforms, coding agents, prompt engineering tools, and even AI-powered trading bots.
- Developer productivity and tools were a strong focus, with users sharing custom IDEs, build systems, CI/CD alternatives, repository linters, file transfer solutions, and specialized database clients.
- Game development continues to be a passionate pursuit, featuring indie Steam releases, NES rhythm games, physics-based sports games, mobile titles, and even AI-powered tabletop RPG simulators.
- Many projects addressed personal needs and niche interests, such as bespoke fitness trackers, digital journal apps, car wiring diagram creators, a European night train search engine, and tools for managing digital subscriptions.
- Open-source contributions and hardware projects were also well-represented, including a memory-safe programming language, various Linux-related tools, custom-built microcontrollers for specific applications, and a pinball museum.
Overall, the thread painted a picture of a highly creative and technically proficient community, consistently pushing boundaries and building solutions that range from the deeply personal to those with broader commercial potential. The collaborative spirit, marked by requests for feedback and offers of assistance, further underscores the unique value of this Hacker News tradition.
The Gossip
AI's Agile Agents
A dominant theme revolved around AI-powered agents and tools. Many users are leveraging LLMs like Claude Code and Codex for everything from code generation and debugging to UI design and personal knowledge management. Discussion often touched on the productivity benefits, the challenges of managing AI-generated code quality, and the development of frameworks (like agent orchestration, security layers, and context management) to make AI agents more reliable and effective. Some are even using AI to audit other AI's friendliness to codebases.
Productivity Paradigms & Personal Projects
The thread is a goldmine of "scratch your own itch" projects. Users are creating tools to enhance personal productivity, manage information, and solve unique problems. Examples include minimalist journal apps, internet archives, macOS project organization tools, and custom fitness trackers. This theme highlights the self-directed nature of many HN users who build solutions for themselves, often leading to potential commercial products. Discussions sometimes delve into UI/UX challenges, technical implementation details, and the motivation behind these personal endeavors.
Gaming's Growing Ground
Game development remains a passionate pursuit for many, with a variety of genres and platforms represented. Submissions included physics-based soccer games, NES rhythm games, tactical submarine simulators, and AI-powered tabletop RPGs. Several developers highlighted the challenges and joys of shipping their first game, the iterative process of design, and the use of tools (or avoidance of them, in some cases like "no AI" coding) in their creative process. There was also discussion around specific game mechanics, engines, and the distribution platforms like Steam and Itch.io.