April 9, 2026
Five bots and a judge walk into prod
Show HN: Druids – Build your own software factory
Hackers split: “Magic factory!” vs “Who debugs five bots and a judge?”
TLDR: Druids promises a DIY “software factory” where multiple coding bots coordinate through a shared event log, locally or on druids.dev. The crowd split: fans praise clearer handoffs and automation, while skeptics ask how you debug “five workers and a judge,” and minimalists say simple scripts might be enough.
The new drop is called Druids, a toolkit that lets you spin up tiny code‑writing helpers (“agents”) on their own virtual computers and have them work together while you conduct the orchestra. Fans swooned over the concept of a shared event log—a kind of group diary that keeps the story straight across all the bots—especially after one user cheered, “I love the idea… Smart!” Another compared it to Symphony, saying they’re ready to move from one giant chat to multiple stations with clean handoffs. The vibe: factory floor energy with a dash of wizardry.
But the comment section lit up with hard questions. One skeptic pictured “5 workers + a judge” spread across virtual machines and asked the dreaded question: how do you trace a failure? Can you replay everything locally and peek inside each bot? Meanwhile, the minimalist crowd flexed their old‑school cred: why not just spawn a command like claude "foo bar baz" and glue it together with files and pipes? Supporters shot back that Druids’ automation, clean coordination, and “clone a machine in a click” tricks could make AI teams actually manageable. Humor flew—“court is in session,” “factory foreman vibes,” and yes, plenty of druid spell jokes—while someone simply dropped, “Very cool!” If Druids keeps its promise, it could turn chaotic AI sidekicks into a reliable assembly line, whether you run it locally or on druids.dev.
Key Points
- •Druids is a Python library and hosted platform for coordinating coding agents across machines using an event-driven model.
- •Programs are async functions where agents trigger events; the program defines handlers to orchestrate actions like creating agents or recording results.
- •Each agent runs in a sandboxed VM with the repo and dependencies; agents can share machines, transfer files, and work on git branches.
- •Hosted features include agent.fork() for instant copy-on-write VM clones; users can message agents, inspect state, and redirect work during execution.
- •Quickstart requires Docker, uv, and an Anthropic API key; example programs and an architecture (FastAPI server, CLI/client, runtime SDK, Vue 3 dashboard) are provided.