[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":438},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-48433756":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":35,"aspects":36,"strip":40,"post_text":42,"what":43,"said":75,"maker_in_thread":175,"shape":186,"grid":190,"attempts":401,"same_week":402,"maker_shows":39,"maker_hidden":430,"reader_version":431,"card":432},"48433756","Lathe","Use LLMs to learn a new domain, not skip past it","title","Show HN: Lathe – Use LLMs to learn a new domain, not skip past it","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fdevenjarvis\u002Flathe","github.com","devenjarvis",1780831006,2026,402,72,84,4366,2,"legend","productivity","learning tutorials","cli",[24,25,26,27],"llm tutor","learn programming","hands-on tutorial","claude code skill","mixed",0.318,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":33,"critical":34},10,6,0,3,19,{"idea":37,"design":38},{"positive":32,"critical":18},{"positive":39,"critical":33},1,[33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,41,33,41,41,33,39,33,41,33,41,41,39,34,41,39,33,33,34,34,41,33,34,41,33],5,"Hey HN!\n\nLathe is an experiment in using LLMs to teach me something new, instead of doing the work for me. It generates a hands-on, source-backed tutorial for any technical topic you want to learn. Then you work through it yourself by reading and typing the code by hand (gasp) in a local UI built for exactly that.\n\nIt's a Go CLI plus LLM agent skills (Claude Code \u002F Cursor \u002F Codex). You prompt something like \"\u002Flathe build a 3D slicer in Erlang\", run `lathe serve` to spin up a local webapp, and read it in your browser. Every tutorial comes with the things that have made self-learning a pleasant ",{"problem":44,"audience":50,"pricing":58,"motivation":59,"time_to_build":58,"stack":63,"openness":72,"stage":73,"team_size":74},{"value":45,"source":46,"evidence":47},"Learning technical domains where no good human-written tutorial exists yet.","maker",[48],{"id":49},"post",{"value":51,"source":52,"evidence":53},"Developers learning new technical domains with LLM help.","inferred",[54,55],{"id":49},{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},"48435663","Yea that’s definitely been a primary usecase for me! Easing the barrier to entry into a new project, and giving me the foundation to take it further on my own once I’m comfortable.",null,{"value":60,"source":46,"evidence":61},"Wanted to learn domains without good human tutorials and keep learning engaged instead of skipping past it.",[62],{"id":49},[64,68],{"value":65,"source":46,"evidence":66},"Go",[67],{"id":49},{"value":69,"source":46,"evidence":70},"Claude Code skills",[71],{"id":49},"open_source","unknown","solo",{"praise":76,"objections":97,"requests":112,"questions":137,"alternatives":152},[77],{"value":78,"source":79,"evidence":80},"Idea of learning by typing code and staying engaged with source material","commenter",[81,85,89,93],{"id":82,"by":83,"text":84},"48438139","andai","Hey this is neat! I was telling my friend the other day. The way you learn programming is by typing code out by hand. And I suggested using LLMs to generate minimal educational…",{"id":86,"by":87,"text":88},"48435453","tatjam","This is a very cool idea, feels like a sane way to use LLMs in this crazy time! Could be a very good way to break the ice when starting a new project and everything is friction.",{"id":90,"by":91,"text":92},"48457448","mklifelife","I like the focus on learning rather than replacing learning. One risk with AI tools is that people can become very productive without actually understanding the underlying…",{"id":94,"by":95,"text":96},"48440414","felixlu2026","I like this framing a lot: using LLMs to stay in contact with the material, not to skip past it. In coding-agent work I see a similar pattern. The best outcomes usually happen…",[98,105],{"value":99,"source":79,"evidence":100},"LLMs hallucinate and make poor progressions when teaching",[101],{"id":102,"by":103,"text":104},"48437525","TonyAlicea10","There is of course a degree of true usefulness to this. However I’ve been a technical educator for years and I’ve tried to do lots with LLMs. Even now, LLMs are terrible…",{"value":106,"source":79,"evidence":107},"Content served without attribution to human sources",[108],{"id":109,"by":110,"text":111},"48437504","f311a","> If you can find resources to learn something that was written by a human, read that first. But Lathe is here to fill in the gaps when that isn't the case Well, but it will…",[113,120,126],{"value":114,"source":79,"evidence":115},"Support for local models such as Ollama",[116],{"id":117,"by":118,"text":119},"48436183","28304283409234","Nice! I do this now locally with LLMS and ollama and my own havky prompts. I could not find if this also supports ollama?",{"value":121,"source":46,"evidence":122},"Support for Gemini and broader LLM providers",[123],{"id":124,"by":11,"text":125},"48436551","Thanks for checking it out! ollama wasn't top of my list for support, just because I don't have a machine powerful enough to run decent local LLMs (I wish I did!). I'll look into…",{"value":127,"source":79,"evidence":128},"Ability to learn from a private or existing codebase",[129,133],{"id":130,"by":131,"text":132},"48453829","mattjoyce","Oh my, this sounds like an idea I have been toying with. I really want a tutor to explain how random repos I find work. Do you think Lathe could be adapted to use a codebase as…",{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"48445438","helixfelix","Can I use this to learn about a complex private repo or how it does things?",[138,145],{"value":139,"source":79,"evidence":140},"How does it compare to NotebookLM?",[141],{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},"48436153","mixtureoftakes","We have notebooklm at home? Is there any comparison between these two, looks nice",{"value":146,"source":79,"evidence":147},"Comparison between small open-source and frontier LLMs",[148],{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},"48444167","tam159","Do you have any evaluations\u002F comparisons between small open source LLM and frontier LLM in the Lathe?",[153,160,171],{"value":154,"source":79,"evidence":155},"Socratic quiz skills for coding agents",[156],{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},"48437071","d4rkp4ttern","A related idea is to have the LLM quiz you, Socratic-style about a topic of interest. It persists in asking questions at deeper levels until you arrive at the answer yourself.…",{"value":161,"source":79,"evidence":162},"Google Guided Learning and ChatGPT Study mode",[163,167],{"id":164,"by":165,"text":166},"48435660","esafak","I just use https:\u002F\u002Fblog.google\u002Fproducts-and-platforms\u002Fproducts\u002Feducation\u002Fguided-learning\u002F and similar features of other AIs.",{"id":168,"by":169,"text":170},"48435712","ramon156","What I'm more looking at is your own experience with a vibed tool. I cannot really tell from this introduction whether you actually use and like it (you mentioned you use it and…",{"value":172,"source":79,"evidence":173},"NotebookLM",[174],{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},{"comments":176,"answered":177,"key":178},8,4,[179,182,185],{"id":180,"text":181},"48436605","I agree! I want to say I first saw this pattern in some work Simon Willison did (Rodney and Showboat). For certain workflows the pair of Skills + CLI give me a nice balance…",{"id":183,"text":184},"48437435","I reverted this due to impending billing changes, but Claude and most LLM providers to my knowledge do offer a way to directly fire a prompt to the LLM in a \"headless\" or…",{"id":56,"text":57},{"commenters":187,"max_depth":41,"maker_replies":176,"first_comment_mins":188,"lifespan_hours":189},59,209,202,[191,193,196,199,202,205,208,211,214,217,220,222,225,227,231,234,237,240,243,246,248,251,254,255,258,260,263,265,267,270,273,275,278,281,282,283,286,290,293,297,299,301,306,311,315,317,321,326,330,332,335,338,343,345,349,351,353,355,357,360,362,365,368,369,371,375,379,381,383,386,388,392,396,398],[157,33,33,192,158,33],"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[194,33,33,192,195,33],"48437434","OtherShrezzing",[197,33,33,192,198,33],"48437664","danieljacksonno",[200,33,33,201,158,33],"48438510","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[203,33,33,201,204,33],"48445506","mkl",[206,33,33,192,207,33],"48446009","raincole",[209,33,33,192,210,33],"48441012","altmanaltman",[212,33,33,192,213,33],"48441533","tonyhart7",[215,33,33,192,216,33],"48441662","josmar",[218,33,33,192,219,33],"48441984","visha1v",[221,33,33,192,213,33],"48443531",[223,33,33,192,224,33],"48447532","UltraSane",[226,33,33,201,213,33],"48459006",[228,33,33,229,230,33],"48450234","commenter\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","hootz",[232,39,33,192,233,33],"48440102","nomel",[235,39,33,192,236,33],"48440288","embedding-shape",[238,39,33,192,239,33],"48440740","FeteCommuniste",[241,39,33,192,242,33],"48443617","dtj1123",[244,39,33,192,245,33],"48444174","suprjami",[247,39,33,192,242,33],"48447542",[249,39,33,192,250,33],"48444428","BoxFour",[252,18,33,192,253,33],"48436019","dchuk",[180,18,33,201,11,39],[256,18,33,201,257,33],"48437115","edot",[259,18,33,201,253,33],"48466936",[261,18,33,192,262,33],"48437383","derefr",[183,18,33,264,11,39],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[266,18,33,201,262,33],"48438712",[268,18,33,201,269,33],"48443911","frumiousirc",[271,18,33,192,272,33],"48437443","didgeoridoo",[82,34,41,274,83,33],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[276,177,33,192,277,33],"48437426","rdksu",[279,177,33,192,280,33],"48437849","smallerize",[86,41,41,274,87,33],[56,41,33,264,11,39],[284,32,41,274,285,33],"48441815","zuzululu",[287,288,41,274,289,33],"48435893",7,"schmorptron",[291,176,33,192,292,33],"48446706","te_chris",[294,295,33,192,296,33],"48437687",9,"mmarian",[168,31,39,298,169,33],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[300,31,33,274,11,39],"48435929",[302,303,33,304,305,33],"48438664",11,"other\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","mobiuscog",[307,308,41,309,310,33],"48438676",12,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign","Galanwe",[312,313,33,192,314,33],"48547401",13,"williamsss",[164,316,33,192,165,33],14,[318,319,33,192,320,33],"48438070",15,"Arubis",[322,323,41,324,325,33],"48440386",16,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","zjy71055",[327,328,33,192,329,33],"48436793",17,"threecheese",[90,331,41,274,91,33],18,[333,35,33,192,334,33],"48437753","visarga",[109,336,39,337,110,33],20,"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fnone",[339,340,34,341,342,33],"48436108",21,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","4b11b4",[130,344,34,341,131,33],22,[346,347,41,274,348,33],"48435359",23,"james_marks",[350,347,33,264,11,39],"48435708",[102,352,39,298,103,33],24,[354,352,33,264,11,39],"48437608",[356,352,33,201,103,33],"48440926",[358,352,33,192,359,33],"48437682","tmountain",[361,352,33,201,103,33],"48440903",[363,352,33,192,364,33],"48439858","protocolture",[117,366,34,367,118,33],25,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[124,366,33,264,11,39],[149,370,34,367,150,33],26,[372,373,34,367,374,33],"48437661",27,"Sathwickp",[376,377,41,324,378,33],"48435757",28,"kaeluka",[142,380,33,192,143,33],29,[382,380,33,264,11,39],"48436566",[384,380,33,192,385,33],"48437558","troymc",[134,387,34,367,135,33],30,[389,390,41,324,391,33],"48465507",31,"tobbe2064",[393,394,33,192,395,33],"48436648",32,"xyzsparetimexyz",[94,397,33,201,95,33],33,[399,397,33,201,400,33],"48440427","gnabgib",[],[403,408,412,416,420,425],{"id":404,"name":405,"points":406,"category":407},"48445554","Performative-UI",1181,"dev_tools",{"id":409,"name":410,"points":411,"category":407},"48408854","Absurdly Optimized Pancakes",340,{"id":413,"name":414,"points":415,"category":407},"48447806","Gitdot",334,{"id":417,"name":418,"points":419,"category":407},"48478469","Extend UI",252,{"id":421,"name":422,"points":423,"category":424},"48396004","Uruky",236,"web_saas",{"id":426,"name":427,"points":428,"category":429},"48459837","Gravity",217,"languages",false,"v2",{"id":433,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":430,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":28,"s":434,"top":18,"kw":435,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":33,"strip":436,"url":9,"mix":437,"praise":78,"objection":99,"sub":21},48433756,0.32,[24,25,26,27],"0000000000000000505501050551351003350350",[31,32,33,34],1793991156219]