Launch HN: Creo (YC W24) – Build internal tools with NextJS and AI
Hey HN, Rohan and Saif here from Creo (https://trycreo.com/). Creo lets you make internal tools with NextJS. We’re code-first because we think engineers prefer being in their IDE (especially today, with all the advancements in dev-tools) when building out internal tooling for their company.

Here’s a demo of writing code and then deploying your tools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDTk1SmtpXw
And here’s one on how to get started with the CLI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyyyRv2TJy0.

A lot of internal tool builders (eg: Retool and Tooljet) are low-code, meaning you’re given a WYSIWYG drag-and-drop UI where you can drag components onto a canvas, and then wire them up to a data source or endpoint using a form/code-block. This has the advantage of being accessible to non-programmers, who are often the people needing and using the tools. What we’ve repeatedly seen, however, is that while these solutions begin with a PM (or similar) creating the initial tool, they soon bring in an engineer to e.g. wire it up to a data source or an endpoint. But engineers dislike dealing with this drag-and-drop stuff—it would be so much easier for them just to do it in code. So these products become stuck somewhere between code and no-code.

We experienced many such problems building internal tools at companies we’ve worked at in the past. We tried the aforementioned low-code builders and found the tools hard to maintain as they became more complex. We wanted to write the JavaScript we’re comfortable with, but it was always hard picking the libraries/dependencies to get started. We never found a good, opinionated set of abstractions to build internal tools quickly.

Our solution is simple: you use our CLI to clone our NextJS14-based starter and run it on port 8891, where you write the React/JS you’re comfortable with. All you have to do is worry about the app/tools folder, where you can create new directories for the tools you need to create. Everything else is configuration files. Once you push your project to a GitHub repo, you can connect that repo to our platform on our deployments page. We also have a component library (built on top of Shadcn), that will save you time, especially with things like data tables, forms and charts.

The tools will then show up on your dashboard and be usable in about 1-2 minutes. The rest of the platform has all the other features you will need, such as being able to add team members to your organization, configuring permissions, keyboard shortcuts, authentication and more.

The real value, in our opinion, is that you will never have to do authentication, manage team permissions, and worry about components. Because it’s code-first, it also becomes dead easy to coordinate with your team via source control, and take advantage of tools like GitHub Copilot to write repetitive code fast. Our current pricing is free to get started as an individual, and subscription based pricing for teams (Currently $30/mo up to 5 users, later seat-based subscriptions).

You can try Creo today by heading to https://trycreo.com/, or get started without signing up by looking at our docs (https://docs.trycreo.com).

We’d love to hear your feedback.

Edit: We also have an AI offering that is live today. You can grab an API key from our web app, add it to your .env locally and ask it to generate the tool you have in mind! (The YouTube video shows you how you can do this)