[HN Gopher] Launch HN: SIM Studio (YC X25) - Figma-Like Canvas f...
___________________________________________________________________
Launch HN: SIM Studio (YC X25) - Figma-Like Canvas for Agent
Workflows
Hey HN! We're Emir and Waleed from Sim Studio
(https://simstudio.ai). We did a Show HN a few weeks ago about our
open-source project
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823096). Today, we're
launching our hosted platform--a collaborative interface to build
and deploy agent workflows. We just removed the waitlist (with
5,000+ people) and you can sign up and access it at:
https://simstudio.ai Sim Studio lets you build agents with
different models, tools, and custom functions. In minutes, you can
deploy a research agent. Demo here - https://youtu.be/F6MqNvnfxbI
We started working on Sim Studio because we were frustrated with
agent frameworks that required excessive boilerplate code and
unhelpful abstractions (like agent roles and backstories). We also
tried other visual interfaces, but found them difficult to set up
and too limited for production use cases. Specifically, we wanted
the ability to write custom functions, force tool calls, and run
parallel execution. We're taking a different approach. Our visual
canvas lets you explicitly define how agents interact, use external
tools, and handle complex logic like branching, loops, and
conditional execution. You can seamlessly integrate with popular
tools like Supabase, Pinecone, Mem0, and Exa without obscure
abstractions. You can simulate workflow runs, deploy workflows as
APIs or standalone chat interfaces, and trigger them via webhooks.
We offer built-in observability, detailed trace spans, and logs
that make debugging straightforward. Try searching yourself below:
Example message for https://hn.simstudio.ai: - Search [person]
from [company] - "Search Emir Karabeg from Sim Studio" Check out
our Apache 2.0 licensed repo at https://github.com/simstudioai/sim,
explore our docs at https://docs.simstudio.ai, or try out our
deployed chat from the demo video here: https://hn.simstudio.ai.
We'd love to hear your feedback! Do you think our visual solution
is a good approach to building agents?
Author : waleedlatif1
Score : 43 points
Date : 2025-05-21 15:49 UTC (7 hours ago)
| jasongill wrote:
| It would be great to see how this compares (why it's better, or
| what it does differently) to the myriad of competitors in this
| space - from established players like n8n adding 'AI' features,
| to AI-specific workflow tools like Rivet, to AI libraries adding
| visual designers like Langflow.
|
| Site looks great!
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| thank you! We believe Sim Studio is different because we built
| it from the ground up to be ai-native - not an automation tool
| that bolted on ai features as an afterthought
|
| A few points on this:
|
| - Super intuitive & highly configurable visual canvas where
| there are no abstractions over the model providers' parameters
|
| - Seamlessly works with the dev tools everyone uses (supabase,
| pinecone, mem0, exa)
|
| - Handles complexities like branching, loops, and concurrency
| by default
|
| - Built-in debugging that actually makes sense (with trace
| spans and logs)
|
| - Actually open source (apache 2.0)
| matt3D wrote:
| The one thing I find a bit odd about a lot of these orchestration
| tools is that they aren't AI first on their own UX.
|
| Surely the first thing I should be presented with is a prompt
| window that can help be scaffold out the orchestration.
| ekarabeg wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion! We're adding in a prompt to workflow
| this week.
| Geep5 wrote:
| I love this space, been really enjoying Rivet which is open
| source and free. It's made coding a joy.
| diamondfist25 wrote:
| Can you share this project you are referring to?
| Maxious wrote:
| https://github.com/Ironclad/rivet
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| i think it significantly lowers the bar for entry to
| building agentic workflows, but also has the potential to
| augment the development process for engineers since its
| such a tight feedback loop. for instance, we were working
| on a sales & marketing ai tool before this and iterating
| was so hard because the agent frameworks are finicky, and
| rolling our own multi-agent orchestration means we are
| locked into a single provider. on sim studio, you can
| switch providers and tools instantly without any switching
| cost
| worldsayshi wrote:
| I think that "Figma/Excalidraw-like" canvas for <insert
| interesting problem domain here> is an underrated solution space.
| At least in terms of variation on the problem domain.
| swyx wrote:
| (should add TLdraw which is specifically built for
| extensibility)
|
| no, it is overrated. there are many many canvas workflow
| builders like this one. they're all beautiful, intuitive and
| easy to use. they all also dont get traction. go ahead, name
| one that everyone else here will know. its weird but theres a
| huge gulf here between what people think they want and what
| people really use outside the
| figma/excalidraw/tldraw/miro/canva space
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| we bet that its just because they pre-dated LLMs and don't
| really allow for granular control. the goal is to make it
| easier to develop automations/workflows, not harder. we think
| the future of development is 90%
| transformations/routing/fallbacks (boring) and the only part
| that actually impacts the end result is the call to the LLM
| (fun), the tools you give it, and a memory component. if we
| abstract away all the boring stuff, and only leave the stuff
| that impacts the results then it makes iterating and building
| with AI much faster and easier.
| jerejacobson wrote:
| I agree, I especially find it useful when prototyping. I
| recently built a canvas node-based tool that connects LLM
| prompts and passes the model's response into the next node as
| context. It was fun to create and great for testing/comparing
| outputs from different models. https://littleworkflow.com/
| ekarabeg wrote:
| That's awesome! I like the visual rendering on the canvas.
| jerejacobson wrote:
| Thanks! I will definitely try out Sim Studio later today.
| It looks great, nice work!
| ekarabeg wrote:
| We believe a visual solution is the best way for developers --
| and LLMs -- to build applications in the future.
| barbazoo wrote:
| It would be nice to see the examples populated with real life
| examples.
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| thanks for the feedback, we are launching a ton of templates on
| the platform this week that you can add to your workspace with
| a single click. also, we'll add some examples to the home page
| ekarabeg wrote:
| Try out https://hn.simstudio.ai for a live example, but we're
| also releasing templates this week to see community workflows.
| tsumnia wrote:
| I think OP is more referring to examples on how to set a
| workflow, like what would the equivalent "Hello World" /
| "FizzBuzz" / "Send an alert notification to [location] if
| [condition]". We're still trying to identify when and where
| using an agent is beneficial, so some use cases that I can
| review and fiddle with to match my workflow will help.
|
| Really cool platform, so I'm interested in using it!
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| adding some examples and templates this week, and in our
| discord we are gonna maintain a showcase where ppl can post
| the cool workflows they've built.
| srameshc wrote:
| I like the product. But I have a feedback: Your homepage doesn't
| exactly help understand your product. Your github has a GIF that
| describes your product better, so you should consider having
| something like that describes your product better on your
| website.
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| thanks for the feedback, will add the demo directly to the
| website!
| efitz wrote:
| Looks like IFTTT for LLM agents :-)
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| i like to think of us as the version of these automation
| platforms that doesn't make you hardcode in all the non-
| determinism & edge cases, because now we can just use llms :)
| flaviuspopan wrote:
| Lovely! I'll give this a shot soon. Two questions: 1. Pricing - I
| presume y'all will eventually charge for hosting like n8n? I'm
| feeling a bit sheepish trying a new service without any mention
| of price. Even mentioning a free tier would be nice to see.
|
| 2. Any plans for integrating MCP servers? I'm looking to build a
| WhatsApp based Text to SQL service and this seems like a solid
| fit, but I'd like to use an MCP server that groks the business
| domain to query supabase. Any suggestions on how to pull this
| off?
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| appreciate it!
|
| 1) we are completely open source and you can self-host it if
| you so please. for the hosted platform, we have a free tier to
| let you tinker and get some free inference credits, and then we
| have a pro plan with is $20 worth of inference, team plan with
| $40. we only charge for inference, not to use the platform
|
| 2) we are planning on integrating with MCP servers, although
| hesitatn because its a newer protocol and may not be here to
| stay (might be a hot take). in the meantime, we have pre-built
| integrations for whatsapp & supabase, so you can definitely
| build this out today
| primitivesuave wrote:
| Congratulations on the public launch!
|
| I had the honor of meeting these founders in person, and was
| pretty inspired by how fast these guys ship features and iterate
| on the product with their customers. Definitely the best React
| Flow work I've ever seen!
| waleedlatif1 wrote:
| thank you! appreciate the kind words
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-05-21 23:00 UTC)