Real AI agent use cases, with sources and setup prompts

Build your own terminal UI or agent harness in Lua with an LLM guide

Two Neovim fans wanted an agent harness they could customize as deeply as their editor, so they built Ito, a Lua library for terminal UIs. Its browser playground ships an ito.md guide you paste into your LLM along with what you want to make.

See pricing page1-2 hoursIntermediateSource linked

Source

cat-whisperer on Hacker News · 2026-10-14 · Project link

Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-16.

What they did

Two Neovim fans wanted an agent harness they could customize as deeply as their editor, so they built Ito, a Lua library for terminal UIs. Its browser playground ships an ito.md guide you paste into your LLM along with what you want to make.

Result (as claimed)

Open source with a browser playground; 74 points on Show HN.

Tools they used

The source does not name specific tools.

Cost: Pricing depends on the tools you pick; check each official pricing page.

Set it up

  1. Pick a contained repo or task

    Start on a branch or side project where mistakes are cheap.

  2. Install and configure

    Set up the tools you choose. Read what it can run on your machine and limit permissions where possible.

  3. Run it on a real task

    Give it a well-scoped issue and let it work. Review the diff like any pull request.

  4. Add guardrails

    Keep tests and CI in the loop, and never let an agent push to main or touch production secrets unattended.

Copy the full setup prompt

Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.

You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code.

Goal: Build your own terminal UI or agent harness in Lua with an LLM guide
What the original author did: Two Neovim fans wanted an agent harness they could customize as deeply as their editor, so they built Ito, a Lua library for terminal UIs. Its browser playground ships an ito.md guide you paste into your LLM along with what you want to make.
Reported result (as claimed by the author): Open source with a browser playground; 74 points on Show HN.
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50096300
Tools they used: not named in the source
Category: Dev & ops

Please:
1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like).
2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure.
3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data.
4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.

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