What is Riffpad?

Riffpad is an AI-native sketchbook for code.

Describe an idea in plain language — on your phone, tablet, or desktop — and watch it become a running workspace: files, a live preview, and an autonomous agent inside a sandbox. When the prototype is validated, bridge it to Cursor, Claude Code, or your own pipeline in one click.

No setup. No local environment. No lost context.

Why Riffpad?

Most AI coding tools sit at one of two extremes: a chat window that thinks but doesn't build, or a heavy IDE that builds but demands a desk. Riffpad lives upstream of both.

vs. ChatGPT / Gemini

ChatGPT / Gemini Riffpad
Where ideas live Buried in an endless chat scroll A file tree with version history
Output Text replies A running sandbox with live preview
Environment None Stateful, sandboxed workspace
Persistence Copy-paste snippets Branch, persist, refactor, and export

vs. Claude Code / Codex

Claude Code / Codex Riffpad
Runtime Your local machine Cloud
Setup Repo, dependencies, terminal, Git None — describe it and start
Devices Desktop, phone perhaps? Phone, tablet, desktop
Workflow position Downstream production IDE Upstream idea incubator
Handoff — Zip, MCP server, or Agent Skill

Local Development

This repo is a pnpm monorepo. You need:

  • Node.js >= 18.17
  • pnpm >= 9.0
  • Go >= 1.22
  • Docker & Docker Compose (for local Postgres / Redis / MinIO)

Quick start

# 1. Install dependencies
cp .env.example .env
make install

# 2. Start the full local stack
make dev-local

The compose Postgres is mapped to host port 5433 (container 5432) so it does not clash with a system-wide Postgres. DATABASE_URL in .env.example already points there. The API auto-creates the workspaces / messages tables on startup (GORM AutoMigrate).

Auth: without a real SUPABASE_URL the API runs in dev mode — the app auto-signs-in as anonymous and you can switch users from the header menu (tokens look like Bearer dev:<userId>). Point SUPABASE_URL / SUPABASE_ANON_KEY at a real Supabase project to enable email+password sign-in; all workspace data is isolated per user either way.

Services will be available at:

Service URL
App (app.riffpad.ai) http://localhost:3000
Landing (riffpad.ai) http://localhost:3001
API (api.riffpad.ai) http://localhost:8080
API health check http://localhost:8080/healthz
Postgres localhost:5433
pgweb (DB web UI, no login) http://localhost:8081
MinIO console http://localhost:9001

Useful commands

make build     # Build all apps
make test      # Run all tests
make lint      # Run all linters
make down      # Stop Docker Compose services
make clean     # Remove build artifacts and node_modules

Project structure

riffpad/
├── apps/
│   ├── app/       # app.riffpad.ai (Next.js 14 + shadcn/ui)
│   ├── landing/   # riffpad.ai marketing site
│   └── api/       # Go backend (Echo + GORM)
├── packages/
│   └── shared-types/  # OpenAPI definitions
├── infra/
│   └── docker-compose.yml  # Local dev infrastructure
└── docs/
    ├── prd.md     # Product requirements
    └── tsd.md     # Technical specification

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.