Last week I started using some of the new coding agents properly. Not in a careful, experimental way, but properly -- for three days on rqlite. Claude Code. Copilot CLI. Tools I had yet to fully integrate into how I write software. If you know the Star Trek episode The Doomsday Machine -- where Kirk…

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AI coding agents like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI have fundamentally changed the competitive landscape for open-source projects. The author discovered that these tools not only accelerated their own development on rqlite (a distributed database), clearing years of backlog in days, but also eliminated the traditional moat that existing codebases once provided. Previously, the accumulated investment in a mature, working system created a barrier to competition—starting from scratch was too costly. Now, AI tools have dramatically lowered the cost of building new systems from the ground up, making pre-existing code less of a competitive advantage. While this enables faster feature development for existing projects, it also means competitors can close the gap much more quickly than before.

The source code was the moat. But not anymore – Vallified

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I created it, […] Not for money […] but out of pride, a drive to make it as good as it can be
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
The concern is that someone will build their own […] and sideline my work.
</blockquote>
Sorry what? Open source is not about money but pride in your work and when someone else overtakes you, you feel wronged somehow? This really does not compute for me. I was kind of intrigued by the premise that software as a moat is becoming harder. But I fail to see how this applies to open source. It for sure is a major problem for SaaS companies that don’t offer anything beyond the software.

Not this post being written by AI 🤦‍♂️ 😭 ☠️