Introducing Eldrin: an AI app studio that runs on your machine
Eldrin is a desktop AI builder that generates real, deployable software locally. No cloud backend, no rented code. Here's what's in it and why it matters.
I’ve been building a project called Eldrin. It’s the kind of thing I’ve wanted to exist for a while: an AI app studio you actually own, running on your own machine, building real software you can take with you.
The short version: Eldrin is a desktop app that builds software from plain-language descriptions — like the cloud AI builders you’ve seen, except everything runs on your own machine. The code lives in your filesystem. The agents run in a local sandbox. The only thing that ever leaves your computer is the API call to whichever LLM you’re using (Claude or OpenAI, your subscription, your choice).
Why it exists
Most “describe an app, get an app” tools have the same awkward property: the code you’re supposedly getting is actually running on someone else’s servers, behind a chat interface, and the day that company pivots or disappears, so does your project. The tagline on the site is “build real software, own every line” — that’s the entire pitch. If you can’t cd into your project and run git log, you don’t really own it.
What’s actually in there
No marketing bullet points. Here’s what I’ve actually built so far:
- An Electron desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux coming) that boots a local Next.js server and talks to Claude Code agents running inside a sandboxed Docker or Lima container. No cloud backend.
- A split-pane workspace: chat on one side, a real code editor (CodeMirror) in the middle, and a live preview of the app on the right. You watch the code being written and the preview updating as the agents work.
- A real Cloudflare Workers template underneath. Projects scaffold as Hono + React + TanStack Router apps. When you’re ready, one click deploys them to Cloudflare — to your account, under your domain.
- A proper state machine driving project lifecycle (clarifying → planning → in progress → reviewing → completed), with every transition logged immutably. I wanted the internals to feel like engineering, not a prompt with a UI glued on.
- Agent sessions that resume. Close the app, come back tomorrow, pick up where you left off with the full context.
Where it’s going
The beta is open and free right now. I’m using it myself daily — building tools I actually use, shipping them to my own Cloudflare account, and watching agents do the heavy lifting while I stay in the driver’s seat. Team collaboration, project export, and cost insights are next on the list.
If local-first AI tooling is something you care about, this is the part of the road where early feedback changes what the final thing looks like. Follow @eldrin_io to see what ships next, or head to eldrin.io to grab the beta and try it.
More notes from the workshop soon.