I use LLMs (mostly Claude Code) slot for development, but I regularly stuck before the code in the ideation and planning phase. Text-only planning feels too vague, and jumping straight into Figma or specs felt like overcommitting when ideas are still fuzzy.
I built a small system for myself about a year ago: a set of simple ASCII wireframe patterns plus some workflow instructions that I load into an LLM. The goal is to give both me and the model a shared visual language so we can reason about flows, screens, and constraints early, without pixels or long prose.
It’s a full handoff-style document: ASCII wireframes, user flows, edge cases, data model, and implementation notes. Rough, but coherent enough to build from.
I eventually packaged the workflow itself as AsciiKit. It’s just text files (no signup), meant to stay low-fi and disposable. This is pretty niche, and I’m not convinced it’s for everyone (anyone?), but it’s changed how I handle early-stage ideation with LLMs.
Curious whether others feel this same gap between “idea” and “ready to code,” or if this feels like overengineering.
Happy to answer questions.
Show HN: AsciiKit – a shared visual vocabulary for ideating with LLMs · HackerTrans
I built a small system for myself about a year ago: a set of simple ASCII wireframe patterns plus some workflow instructions that I load into an LLM. The goal is to give both me and the model a shared visual language so we can reason about flows, screens, and constraints early, without pixels or long prose.
As a concrete example, I used this workflow to think through an iOS app concept called Still Human — a small app designed to add a pause before opening AI tools. The result is this spec: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/currentlycurrently/2dfbaf...
It’s a full handoff-style document: ASCII wireframes, user flows, edge cases, data model, and implementation notes. Rough, but coherent enough to build from.
I eventually packaged the workflow itself as AsciiKit. It’s just text files (no signup), meant to stay low-fi and disposable. This is pretty niche, and I’m not convinced it’s for everyone (anyone?), but it’s changed how I handle early-stage ideation with LLMs.
Curious whether others feel this same gap between “idea” and “ready to code,” or if this feels like overengineering.
Happy to answer questions.