What is What To Build?
What To Build is a purpose-built AI assistant for developers who code on GitHub — not just another ideation tool, but a strategic co-pilot that bridges inspiration and execution. At its core, it's an intelligent generator of *actionable* project ideas, engineered to understand real-world constraints: tech stack preferences, experience level, open-source impact goals, and even trending repository activity. Unlike generic brainstorming tools, What To Build grounds every suggestion in GitHub’s ecosystem — analyzing live repos, inferring architectural patterns, and mapping out realistic implementation paths. Whether you're a student building your first portfolio project, a solo dev scouting meaningful contributions, or a team lead scoping hackathon challenges, this platform transforms ambiguity into structure — turning “I want to build something” into “Here’s exactly what to build, how to build it, and where to contribute next.” Featured on top AI developer tool directories, What To Build redefines starting points — making idea validation, repo analysis, documentation, and contribution discovery feel native to the GitHub workflow.
How to Use What To Build
Using What To Build is as simple as describing intent — no setup, no OAuth hurdles, no learning curve. Start by typing a keyword (e.g., “Rust CLI”, “AI-powered Notion plugin”, “beginner-friendly Python tool”) or pasting any public GitHub URL into the clean, focused interface. Instantly, the AI interprets context: if you entered a repo, it parses language distribution, issue activity, dependency health, and contributor velocity — then surfaces actionable insights. If you entered a concept, it generates 3–5 tailored project ideas with ranked viability scores, each accompanied by a visual roadmap showing core files, key dependencies, starter commands, and even suggested first PRs.
The README generator works in seconds: input owner/repo format (e.g., vercel/next.js), and receive a production-ready, Markdown-optimized README with live preview — complete with badges, installation steps, usage examples, and contribution guidelines. For contributors, the Open-Source Match Engine cross-references your GitHub profile (public stats only) with thousands of active repositories to surface projects needing help *in your exact skill zone* — tagged by difficulty, response time, and maintainer engagement. And because context matters, every analysis includes “Why This Matters” summaries — translating technical metrics into strategic takeaways (e.g., “Low issue closure rate → high mentorship opportunity”).