Salamenos

Deterministic and custom formats are the key use for AI.

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Inspiration

I was inspired by the fact that companies waste alot of resources, and users pay a heavy toll by asking for simple fixes, sure, it got better recently but is still fundamentally broken. For example, asking Ai to swap colors on my site, or make something x time faster/change the settings for absurd or small fixes, the Ai has to find it, fix it, re-insert it, the backend has to do all the checks, this consumes alot of context and so on. TLDR: the concept is to use deterministic shortcuts and dynamic settings so the AI works can be done by the backend or chosen by the user itself. Alongside templates because most sites after all are pretty similar. Thus, this idea came out a long time ago, long before the agentic era was flourishing, and to be honest was too ambitious with it. My idea, which is not actually called "salamenos" evolved many times with the fact that AI is very volatile and innovate quiet fast, the project was postponed, canceled, rethought from the ground up many times, and is right now on pause. Why? Because i realized an individual cannot logically rival with big apps like lovable or codex! Why would users and companies trust a lebanese person which is an individual with his data? What would happen if the company disappears tomorrow? I cannot even process payments! this is the biggest reason, i cannot earn money from it easily.

What it does

This is not your average Wrapper or lovable clone. My project uses custom formats (.pal) to create a language easy for AI to understand and edit, with for example all variables at the top, custom instructions and blocks directly baked inside the code. Then, it has dynamic settings, which are meant to grow with the project. Basically, let's say a user ask the AI to add realistic combat to the game, with mobs and attacks. Instead of each time asking the AI, or going through complex code logic to guess if i increase the math here what happens, dynamic settings are scanned by the compiler and backend and detected. The user simply edits the value on the frontend and are directly implemented, no AI middleman. Then, when building it, i realized there is no real templates. You cannot easily drag and drop assets into your app, like a oath flow, a newsletter, because everyone has it's own way, own language, own variables and so on to get what it wants. My idea, the custom .pal format will unite them, it's written by AI to be modular. Users can simply drag and drop assets into it and it automatically snaps to the environment, or, at best, AI helps it integrate it easily! And, a fairly revolutionary one is deterministic fixes.

The new norm is communicating with your computer, normal users who are not coders should not worry about consuming resources or have the guilt of consuming their credits for it (and trust me, i was one of them!). So, to fix it, i imagined a system similar to how old chatbot worked like siri or bixby, it understand what you mean with keyword and can understand turnarounds, all locally and almost instantly! Users can select a button (the ui they want to fix) or text, ask the "agent" to change the color or the font, and it instantly adjusts to it! This is still very basic, yes, i know. But it reflects a bigger meaning, not everything needs AI to work. This could be applied with AI to create very efficient support bots, more precises and useful agentic tasks

How we built it

This is a long story, the project maybe started multiple months ago and was the first project i started with codex, i built it in with ALOT of hope this would help the planet, the companies wallets and the users one. So, i used codex, my magnificient brain, my experience making it to self improve and see what the user is actually missing when building a project using tools (like codex!) I used vite, javascript, a backend, docker and so on i went through multiple phases to get a working a single prototype, each phase perhaps 1 month of work.

Challenges we ran into

Honestly, the biggest challenges were myself and the lack of optimization, organization from me, and the capabilities of AI back then and now.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I can confidently say my project has many revolutionary ideas, and it opened to my eyes the true power of AI, and fixed problems not many people are encountering or do not think they are. Alot of features were ahead of their time, here is a few: Dynamic settings, first and only one to have something like this. Deterministic Ai dummy, first one to have thought this could be done with pure code and reliably, typos, different words, languages work flawlessly, not a monolith of if else and hardcoded rules. directly baking permissions with the way a website work, from it, you can directly see how an admin, a guest, or a user would see the site live with no extra plugins, extra code or hard workflows. A easy to understand page documentation, every page is actually loaded inside a map, with links: dead ends, outdated pages and so on are all instantly flagged and easy to fix. custom formats: Probably my masterpiece, the oportunities are endless, you could make the AI learn in a small prompt how to use number sequences to build a house, because the backend know what each thing mean, making it much easier than using the workaround agents are currently using. Dirt cheap/free hosting reliable: Using overides on top of templates to host sites for free or unified databases formats if backends are needed, or nested code...

What we learned

I learned that a useful idea alone is not enough, and that sometimes you need to face reality, a single person cannot build a massive project like this alone, and especially if he does not know how to code himself. But, this does not mean they are no positives, i learned about optimisation, custom formats, and so much more!

What's next for Salamenos

Honestly, i don't know. I hope i can get in touch with any of you, or win a prize or help to continue. Currently focusing on other smaller projects and my teen years. I would be thrilled to help build something optimized, and have alot more to offer, like eco-friendly sites nowhere near the pitiful optimisation people are currently using.

Built With

  • backend
  • codex
  • concept
  • frontend
  • idea
  • love
  • vite
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