Show HN: Whiteboard (YC W26) – An open-source IDE for thoughtful software design

Whiteboard, a Y Combinator W26 company, launched an open-source IDE for the design phase before code generation that ships Claude plugins, an AGENTS.md file, and a review-desktop app. The tool positions itself as a front-end to agent workflows rather than an autocomplete tool, aiming to feed coding agents cleaner specs from structured up-front design artifacts and provide a human review gate on pull requests.

Hacker News https://github.com/devdotfast/whiteboard Show HN: Whiteboard YC W26 – An open-source IDE for thoughtful software design Which summary reads better? Pick one — models revealed after.Both summaries are AI-generated. An open-source IDE aimed at the design phase before code generation, positioning itself as a front-end to agent workflows it ships Claude plugins, an AGENTS.md, and a review-desktop app rather than another autocomplete tool. If you're already running coding agents in production, the pitch is that structured up-front design artifacts feed agents cleaner specs and give you a human review gate on PRs—worth a look if your agents are shipping plausible-but-wrong code from underspecified prompts. Whiteboard introduces an open-source IDE designed specifically for thoughtful software design, enabling developers to streamline the transition from ideation to implementation. This matters because it integrates with existing workflows and tools like GitHub Copilot, reducing friction in the design-to-code pipeline and potentially accelerating development cycles for teams focused on deliberate, high-quality software architecture.