I retired to build a travel app. I ended up building an AI Software Factory instead.

I retired in Dec 2024 after a career as a software services exec (SVP/CTO/COO). My initial plan was simple: use my free time to build a personal travel app I’d been thinking about for some time.

Since my hands-on coding skills were rusty, I thought I’d use the new wave of "AI Coding Agents" to do the heavy lifting. I tried them all.

The Reality Check They were brilliant at writing functions, but terrible at building software. After just a few files, they hit a wall. They lost context, forgot my architecture, and started hallucinating details. I realized that treating an LLM like a senior engineer is a mistake. They are junior interns that have brilliant raw talent, but need strict supervision to be productive.

The Pivot I stopped building the travel app and started building the process I needed to manage the AI. I developed a manual workflow: create requirements, write a spec, feed it to the LLM, review code, maintain a local project state, provide it along with the next spec to the LLM, integrate, and repeat. It was tedious, but it worked.

About halfway through, I realized this workflow was the actual product.

Meet Klyve: The "Senior Partner" for your AI. Klyve is the automated version of that manual workflow. It is a local-first desktop app (Windows/Linux) that acts as the "Manager" for your LLM.

Instead of a chat window, Klyve wraps the AI in a professional SDLC:

1. You are the Architect: You define the App specs, Tech Specs, and Standards. You decide what you want to build in each sprint.

2. Klyve is the Manager: It builds and helps you maintain a backlog, holds the "Project State" (architecture, docs, artifacts) locally, separate from the chat context.

3. AI is the Laborer: Klyve feeds the LLM only the context it needs for the current sprint task, minimizing drift and hallucinations.

Why I'm Releasing it for Free: I’m not trying to launch a startup. I built Klyve because I wanted to prove that a solo founder/developer (even a retired one) could build complex software if they had the right leverage.

I’m releasing the binary for free because I want to give back to the community that I learned from. If you are a solo developer trying to scale yourself, I hope this helps you ship your product.

It works with Local LLMs (Ollama) and Cloud (the common ones). You can grab the binary here: [Klyve](https://klyve.online)

I’d love to hear if this "Manager vs. Worker" approach resonates with your workflow.