The idea was shared, the building was not
Every now and then a friend and I land on a new idea while talking. We keep spinning it, often for days afterwards in our chat.
At some point I sit down and build it on my own. We keep writing about the idea, but I am the only one making it.
I wanted us to work on it together straight away. Build a first version, try it out and bring the idea to life that way.
Nothing gets built until someone agrees
Patchclub gets added to a group and reads along. When the group wants to build something, Patchclub sums up the wishes in one proposal and notes who they came from. Only when someone agrees does it start.
What comes out is a web app with a fixed address. Everyone in the group opens the same version and sees the same data. Anyone who wants something changed writes it in the chat.
The model I have in mind is Claude Code, just in a group chat. Patchclub should understand normal messages and not forget what the group already discussed.
I actually wanted to build it for WhatsApp
That is where my friends are. But WhatsApp does not allow a bot like Patchclub today.
In groups, only officially verified accounts of well-known brands may use bots. WhatsApp's terms shut out providers whose product is AI at its core, except in the European Economic Area and Brazil. Switzerland is not one of them. And the new AI agent platform from August 2026 only works in one-to-one chats.
So Patchclub runs on Telegram. My friends will probably have to install Telegram. For now that is okay. I am keenly watching what happens at WhatsApp.
Maybe it does not need to do more
On Telegram, Patchclub already works very well. It does not build sophisticated, truly complex apps, though.
I am not sure it has to, at least for now. Sometimes a group of friends just wants to dream together and see how their idea could look and work.
Where it stands
Patchclub runs in a closed pilot with selected groups. Today it can:
- sum up wishes from the chat in a proposal
- build and publish small web apps, games and prototypes
- take on changes while a build is still running
- understand voice messages
- start a poll in the group when something is unclear
- show who added which entry in the app
Patchclub currently runs only on Telegram.
Built with
- grammY
- Hono
- Claude Agent SDK
- E2B
- Supabase
- Next.js
- Gemini
- Railway
