What is Hatcher?
AI-generated code is entering our critical infrastructure, often operating like a chaotic junior developer with the keys to the kingdom. This introduces systemic risk that most of the industry is ignoring in the race for full automation.
Hatcher is the counter-narrative: an open-source IDE designed to be the immune system for the AI era.
Today's AI tools are excellent co-pilots; they assist you as you type.
Hatcher is not a co-pilot. It's the first Auto-Pilot for software development.
Our philosophy is not to replace the developer, but to amplify their judgment. We provide a precision control layer that allows developers to wield AI like a surgeon wields a scalpel—with intent, precision, and complete control.
You don't just write code line by line. You step out of the cockpit and into the Command Deck, where you command fleets of autonomous agents to execute complex missions, all governed by your expert strategy.
With Hatcher, you will:
Stop Shipping Risk: Build with a Constitutional Engine that ensures every line of code adheres to your standards.
Stop Wasting Time: Automate entire workflows—from testing to refactoring—with executable Playbooks.
Stop Flying Blind: Understand the history of every change with the Hatcher Time Graph, your immutable audit log.
Hatcher transforms AI from a chaotic partner into a disciplined, auditable force multiplier.
The Vision
Traditional development workflows break down when AI enters the picture. While AI can generate impressive code, developers lose the deterministic control they need to ship production-ready applications. Hatcher solves this by acting as a precision control layer between you and powerful AI engines.
Core Innovation: The Constitutional Engine
Our true innovation is the underlying Constitutional Engine that powers every action in Hatcher. This engine ensures that whether you are writing code, using AI, or manipulating the interface directly, every change is governed by a set of explicit, auditable rules (Playbooks).
The engine's interface is our Visual-to-Code Bridge, which translates your intent into governed actions. Here’s what it enables:
Intelligent, Mode-Aware Interaction:
The bridge adapts to your project's mission.
- In Generative mode, you click an element to visually anchor the AI's context, eliminating ambiguity before you write your prompt.
- In an EGG, you don't use AI for this task at all. You manipulate the element directly, and the engine captures this as a 100% deterministic update to a configuration file.
Constitutionally-Bound Output
Regardless of the interaction mode, the Constitutional Engine guarantees that every generated line of code or configuration change is validated against your project's Playbooks, ensuring architectural compliance.
This eliminates the frustrating cycle of:
Describe → Generate → Debug → RepeatAnd replaces it with:
Intent → Governed Generation → Audit & ApplyA Platform for Every Mission
Hatcher is built on a "one platform, two configurations" architecture, intelligently adapting to the needs of your project.
Hatcher Generative
The default mode for creative exploration. It's the perfect environment to **prototype new ideas and, crucially, to serve as the laboratory for modernizing existing applications. Here, you can safely transform legacy logic into high-performance Hatcher Functions, creating a clear and gradual migration path towards a production-ready Hatcher EGG.
Hatcher EGGs
For mission-critical applications in regulated industries, you can create a Hatcher EGG (Enforced Governance Guardrails). This special project type intentionally constrains freedom to guarantee 100% deterministic, auditable, and secure outcomes.
The Philosophy: Controlled Amplification
We believe the future of development isn't about replacing developers—it's about amplifying their capabilities while maintaining complete control. Hatcher embodies three core principles:
1. Visual Intent Communication
Your visual interactions communicate intent more precisely than any text description could.
2. Deterministic Control
Every AI-generated change is reviewable, predictable, and aligned with your project's patterns.
3. Context-Aware Intelligence
Our Playbooks system ensures AI understands your team's conventions, architecture decisions, and coding standards.
Designed for High-Performance Teams
Frontend Developers
- Rapid UI prototyping and refinement
- Consistent component styling across projects
- Effortless responsive design adjustments
Full-Stack Teams
- Bridge design-to-code handoffs
- Maintain consistency across large codebases
- Accelerate feature development cycles
Design Systems Teams
- Enforce design tokens and patterns
- Generate component variations automatically
- Maintain visual consistency at scale
Key Benefits
Speed Without Sacrifice
Generate code 10x faster while maintaining the quality and patterns your team requires.
Learning Amplification
Watch how expert-level code is generated, learning best practices in real-time.
Team Alignment
Playbooks ensure every team member generates code that follows the same conventions.
Debugging Made Simple
Visual diffs and integrated git workflows make it easy to understand and review AI-generated changes.
Technology Stack
Hatcher is built on a foundation of modern, secure, and performant technologies.
While our current open-source prototype utilizes Electron for rapid iteration, our long-term architectural vision is centered on a Tauri + Rust core. This will ensure the highest level of security, a minimal memory footprint, and the native performance required for enterprise-grade tools.
- Core Architecture (Roadmap): Tauri + Rust
- UI Framework: Vue.js 3 with TypeScript
- Build & Tooling: Vite & Turborepo
Getting Started
Hatcher is in active open-source development and is being built in public. Ready to be a part of it? Our Getting Started Guide shows you how to set up the project, join the community, and make your first contribution.
Open Source & Community
Hatcher is fully open source under the MIT license. We believe the future of developer tools should be built by the community, for the community.
- Website: hatche.rs
- GitHub: HatcherDX/dx-engine
- Discord: Join our community
- Twitter: @HatcherDX
What's Next?
This is just the beginning. Our roadmap includes ambitious plans for test automation, team collaboration features, and a marketplace of reusable development workflows.
Join us in building the future of software development.
Ready to Transform Your Development?
Experience the power of Constitutional AI and join the revolution