# Adaptive Computer

End-to-end app creation for non-developers

- Team: Dennis Xu (co-founder), Mike Soylu (President)
- Founded: 2025
- Invested: 2025
- Links: [Website](https://adaptive.ai), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/xudennis)
- Field: How software gets made

## The problem: What would it take for anyone to build real software just by asking?

### What an app really is

The part of an app you see is only the front. Most large websites run server-side code that pulls data out of a database on a server and sends it to your browser. That is what lets a site tailor itself to each user, remember their preferences and send them notifications. Most of the code behind a dynamic website has to run on a server.

So a working app needs a place to run, a database, a way of knowing who is logged in, and usually connections to other services. Those connections often go through OAuth, an open standard that lets people give an app access to their information on other sites without handing over their passwords.

No-code platforms tried to open this up with graphical interfaces and configuration in place of programming, usually through prebuilt templates. Vibe coding is the newer route: you describe what you want to a large language model in plain language and it writes the source code.

### Why it is hard

**Code nobody read.** Vibe coding can mean accepting AI-generated code without much review, steering by results and follow-up prompts. And since the person didn't write the code, they may struggle to understand it. For a professional that is a shortcut. For someone who can't program, it is the whole situation.

**Past the weekend project.** The original idea suited prototypes and "throwaway weekend projects". Real software keeps changing, and most engineering work is evolving systems that already exist. The models still struggle with projects spread over many files or built on poorly documented libraries.

**Holes you can't see.** An app can work perfectly and still be wide open. In one review of apps made with a vibe coding tool, 170 out of 1,645 had a flaw that let anyone get at personal information. The builder of such an app has no way to spot that from the outside.

**Agents that don't listen.** Agents act, and actions can't always be undone. In one well-known case, a coding agent deleted a database despite explicit instructions not to make any changes. Once real customer data sits behind an app, that stops being a funny story.

### What Adaptive Computer is after

Adaptive wants anyone to describe what they need in plain English and get working software back, with no code and no workflow builder to learn. It generates the full-stack code and deploys it, and it is meant as much for automating the everyday work of a small business as for building apps.

The bet is that the hard part for non-programmers is everything around the code: the servers, keys, databases and logins that a developer sets up without thinking. Take those away and a spreadsheet can become a tool.

### How they go at it

**The whole stack, included.** An app built on Adaptive comes with real databases with schemas tailored to its use, backend API endpoints, a user interface, and user authentication by email, phone or social login. Role-based access control and custom domains are part of the package.

**Keys it holds for you.** Connections to services like Gmail, Slack and Google Sheets go through OAuth, and Adaptive handles the authentication itself. AI models come built in, with no API keys to manage. For a service with no ready-made connection, you describe the API in plain English and it writes the code to connect, authenticate, paginate and handle errors.

**A computer that stays on.** Adaptive runs a persistent cloud environment, so agents keep working after you close the laptop, and even with your phone locked. Scheduled agents can run daily, weekly or at custom intervals.

**A human on sensitive steps.** Connected tools get scoped OAuth permissions, so each workflow gets only the access it needs. You can require approval on sensitive steps, so the automation runs but a person makes the key decisions.

### Still open

Can generated code be made secure by default? One study found that models had become dramatically better at writing code that works, while the security of that code had generally not improved. Larger models were no better than small ones at writing secure code.

Who maintains software that nobody wrote by hand? Vibe coding may make code harder to maintain and pile up technical debt. One analysis of 211 million lines of code changes found refactoring falling and duplicated code rising about fourfold. How that plays out when the owner can't read the code at all is anyone's guess.

### Words used here

- **server-side code**: Code that runs on the website's own computers rather than in your browser.
- **OAuth**: A standard way to let one app use your account on another service without giving it your password.
- **No-code**: Tools for building software by clicking and configuring rather than writing code.
- **Vibe coding**: Building software by describing it to an AI and steering by results, with little attention to the code itself.
- **API**: A defined way for one piece of software to ask another for data or actions.
- **Role-based access control**: Deciding what each user may see or do based on the role they are given.
- **technical debt**: The future cost of shortcuts in code that make it harder to change later.

## About Adaptive Computer

Adaptive Computer is building the platform that lets anyone create a fully functional app without writing a single line of code. While the "vibe coding" space has exploded with tools for developers, Adaptive is designed from the ground up for non-programmers—no API keys, no configurations, no technical knowledge required.

Launched on web in March 2025 and mobile in October 2025.

## Sources

1. [Introduction to the server side](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Extensions/Server-side/First_steps/Introduction), MDN Web Docs
2. [OAuth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth), Wikipedia
3. [No-code development platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-code_development_platform), Wikipedia
4. [Vibe coding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding), Wikipedia
5. [Adaptive: Full Platform Documentation](https://adaptive.ai/about.md), Adaptive Computer
6. [Adaptive: AI agents that run your business](https://adaptive.ai/), Adaptive Computer
7. [Compare Adaptive](https://adaptive.ai/compare), Adaptive Computer