Show HN: I built a toy music controller for my 5yo with a coding agent (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

37 pointsJeffMcCune8mo ago17 comments

The HN community may find the context of the prompts, organized by each turn in each session, the most useful. See the website/docs/prompts.md and session-X.md files. I also started exploring some workflows for the LLM to execute, organized in the website/docs/tasks/ folder. I found it pretty handy to have the LLM document our work as we went and simply embedded the static site into the executable, along with all the music and logic.

The whole project took me about a day for the backend. The C++ controller itself took only a few turns.

I enjoyed focusing on my son's experience and letting the agent handle the C++, Javascript, and Go code.

I'm still getting started with coding agents, so please do share any tips or tricks to help me with similar projects. I'm most interested in how to work effectively with the agent, like what you see in dev-loop.sh

17 comments

dintech8mo ago

For those that love the idea of this kind of child-friendly media consumption but maybe don’t have the time, consider Yoto. You can make your own cards that can contain one track or playlists of mp3s that you drag and drop onto a web interface. The yoto then downloads and stores those files, playing them whenever that card is inserted. You can also use the ipad app to browse and play the same content.

didgeoridoo8mo ago

Yeah Yoto is our family’s iPad alternative to avoid exposing the kids to too much screen time. On car trips or when they’re just being wild we break them out and the kids love trading story cards and then zoning out and listening. Highly recommended.

turtlebits8mo ago

I just built one (nfc music player) with an old rpi, rc522 nfc reader and a cheap usb speaker)

conception8mo ago

Mighty players work great for on the go consumption as well.

x______________8mo ago

>The HN community may find the context of the prompts, organized by each turn in each session, the most useful.

So cool! I'll review fully later but was curious as something caught my attention, do you need to say please and thanks in your prompts for better outputs or is this just anthropomorphism taking over?

nick__m8mo ago

I do the same! To me it's a semi sarcastic hedge against the robots uprising and Roko's basilisk.

But more seriously I remember reading somewhere the LLM produce better output with question starting with please, supplementary politeness was not improving results. Probably because the training corpus include many samples where politeness in request produce better response. That apply to the original GPT-3.5, how it applies to newer models your guess is as good or better then mine...

The thanks are unnecessary but I guess they are useful to reinforce his son politeness habits.

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

It’s anthropomorphism taking over. I pretend I’m talking with a colleague when I do this sort of thing.

xandrius8mo ago

Great way to allow your kid to play the Frozen song on repeat every hour of the day :D

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

That was the first album on it for sure and yes he repeats it constantly. Luckily the speaker is in his room.

He’s got a yoto too but won’t wear the headphones, so this has been a nice compromise.

didgeoridoo8mo ago

In my experience there is no way to avoid this short of eliminating every trace of copper and silicon from your home.

xandrius8mo ago

To be fair, if they manage to play the Frozen song on a classic Game boy color, I'd let them.

Disposal84338mo ago

The C++ code is bad. Do you have any experience with that language? Why did you decide to use it as is?

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

I don’t. It works, reliably enough that my son hasn’t had any issues using it for a week. What’s bad about it?

micromacrofoot8mo ago

if it works, it works

Disposal84338mo ago

I know. But it's not a good advertisement for all those AI agents.

1 more reply

Tade08mo ago

I love the user story descriptions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

Show HN: I built a toy music controller for my 5yo with a coding agent (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

37 pointsJeffMcCune8mo ago17 comments

The whole project took me about a day for the backend. The C++ controller itself took only a few turns.

I enjoyed focusing on my son's experience and letting the agent handle the C++, Javascript, and Go code.

17 comments

dintech8mo ago

didgeoridoo8mo ago

turtlebits8mo ago

I just built one (nfc music player) with an old rpi, rc522 nfc reader and a cheap usb speaker)

conception8mo ago

Mighty players work great for on the go consumption as well.

x______________8mo ago

>The HN community may find the context of the prompts, organized by each turn in each session, the most useful.

nick__m8mo ago

I do the same! To me it's a semi sarcastic hedge against the robots uprising and Roko's basilisk.

The thanks are unnecessary but I guess they are useful to reinforce his son politeness habits.

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

It’s anthropomorphism taking over. I pretend I’m talking with a colleague when I do this sort of thing.

xandrius8mo ago

Great way to allow your kid to play the Frozen song on repeat every hour of the day :D

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

That was the first album on it for sure and yes he repeats it constantly. Luckily the speaker is in his room.

He’s got a yoto too but won’t wear the headphones, so this has been a nice compromise.

didgeoridoo8mo ago

In my experience there is no way to avoid this short of eliminating every trace of copper and silicon from your home.

xandrius8mo ago

To be fair, if they manage to play the Frozen song on a classic Game boy color, I'd let them.

Disposal84338mo ago

The C++ code is bad. Do you have any experience with that language? Why did you decide to use it as is?

JeffMcCuneOP8mo ago

I don’t. It works, reliably enough that my son hasn’t had any issues using it for a week. What’s bad about it?

micromacrofoot8mo ago

if it works, it works

Disposal84338mo ago

I know. But it's not a good advertisement for all those AI agents.

1 more reply

Tade08mo ago

I love the user story descriptions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse