Full-stack dev AI that works with you, not instead of you
Leap builds full-stack applications with real infrastructure and deploys them to your AWS or GCP cloud. It's for developers who want the speed of AI without sacrificing control over architecture, APIs, or deployment.
We built Leap after trying every other AI app builder and hitting the same walls: limited to single-page apps, locked into specific BaaS platforms, and no support for production workflows.
These tools also lack proper isolated test environments, which limits control over deployment. Approving a buggy SQL migration, for example, could impact your production database.
That works for some use cases, but as developers, we wanted support for more advanced infrastructure and architectures.
These may not be flaws. The tools seem designed for non-developers who prioritize simplicity and may not need advanced features. But we wanted something different.
A tool built for developers who want the speed of AI without giving up control of their architecture, APIs, infrastructure, or deployment.
So what makes Leap different?
You still start from a prompt, but after that, the workflow is developer-first:
- You can iterate using versions and diffs. - Apps use Encore.ts for the backend. It's our open-source framework, trusted by thousands and with 10k GitHub stars (https://github.com/encoredev/encore). - It generates live architecture diagrams and API documentation, so you understand what you're building even when much of it is generated by AI. - Manual code edits are of course supported. - The framework includes a declarative infrastructure layer, like a cloud-agnostic version of AWS CDK, enabling Leap to set up infra for microservices, databases, pub/sub, and more in about 1–2 seconds. - The preview environment you work in is completely isolated from prod. - For deployment, you can use open-source tools to package the app into Docker containers and deploy anywhere. - Or use Encore Cloud to manage deployments and infra provisioning in your AWS or GCP cloud.
Leap isn't meant to replace every workflow or tool right away. We expect it to be most useful for spinning up new projects or building isolated systems within an existing product.
We built Leap because nothing else met our needs as developers. Now that we're starting to welcome users, I'd love to hear your thoughts:
- Does this solve any development or deployment pain you've experienced? - What would you need to confidently use this to build production-grade apps? Your feedback will help shape Leap!
About Leap on Product Hunt
“Full-stack dev AI that works with you, not instead of you”
Leap launched on Product Hunt on May 28th, 2025 and earned 108 upvotes and 16 comments, placing #18 on the daily leaderboard. Leap builds full-stack applications with real infrastructure and deploys them to your AWS or GCP cloud. It's for developers who want the speed of AI without sacrificing control over architecture, APIs, or deployment.
On the analytics side, Leap competes within Software Engineering, Developer Tools and Artificial Intelligence — topics that collectively have 1M followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Leap performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Leap?
Leap was hunted by Marcus Kohlberg. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Marcus Kohlberg
Hey PH,
We built Leap after trying every other AI app builder and hitting the same walls: limited to single-page apps, locked into specific BaaS platforms, and no support for production workflows.
These tools also lack proper isolated test environments, which limits control over deployment. Approving a buggy SQL migration, for example, could impact your production database.
That works for some use cases, but as developers, we wanted support for more advanced infrastructure and architectures.
These may not be flaws. The tools seem designed for non-developers who prioritize simplicity and may not need advanced features. But we wanted something different.
A tool built for developers who want the speed of AI without giving up control of their architecture, APIs, infrastructure, or deployment.
So what makes Leap different?
You still start from a prompt, but after that, the workflow is developer-first:
- You can iterate using versions and diffs.
- Apps use Encore.ts for the backend. It's our open-source framework, trusted by thousands and with 10k GitHub stars (https://github.com/encoredev/encore).
- It generates live architecture diagrams and API documentation, so you understand what you're building even when much of it is generated by AI.
- Manual code edits are of course supported.
- The framework includes a declarative infrastructure layer, like a cloud-agnostic version of AWS CDK, enabling Leap to set up infra for microservices, databases, pub/sub, and more in about 1–2 seconds.
- The preview environment you work in is completely isolated from prod.
- For deployment, you can use open-source tools to package the app into Docker containers and deploy anywhere.
- Or use Encore Cloud to manage deployments and infra provisioning in your AWS or GCP cloud.
Leap isn't meant to replace every workflow or tool right away. We expect it to be most useful for spinning up new projects or building isolated systems within an existing product.
We built Leap because nothing else met our needs as developers. Now that we're starting to welcome users, I'd love to hear your thoughts:
- Does this solve any development or deployment pain you've experienced?
- What would you need to confidently use this to build production-grade apps?
Your feedback will help shape Leap!