One file. Double-click. Build real apps with AI — no technical setup required.
VibeStack is a single Windows PowerShell installer that turns a blank PC into a fully configured, AI-powered local app development platform. It's built for vibe coders, solo builders, and non-technical founders who want to build real software with AI tools like Dyad, Cursor, and Windsurf — without spending weeks fighting their computer first.
I built this working 60 hours a week running a cart business. I had ideas. I had AI tools that could write code. What I didn't have was time to fight infrastructure.
Every hour spent configuring a dev environment is an hour not spent building. VibeStack exists because the setup friction for local AI-assisted development on Windows is absurdly high, the tools that exist assume you already know what you're doing, and there's no reason a non-technical person should have to learn any of it just to build their idea.
If this helps one other person ship something — that's the win.
After running the installer, you have:
- A dashboard at
http://localhost:9999that manages all your projects - A project generator that scaffolds complete Next.js + Supabase apps in one click
- One-click launchers for every common operation — no terminal required
- A local database (Supabase/Postgres) per project, running in Docker
- Automatic database migrations — the AI writes schema files, your tables appear
- AI prompt templates built in — PLAN, BUILD, CONTINUE, FIX
- An AI memory system (Athena) that keeps context between coding sessions
- Windows 10 (build 19041+) or Windows 11
- Internet connection for first run (downloads Docker, Node.js, Supabase)
- ~10 GB free disk space
- That's it
The installer handles everything else.
-
Download
vibestack-installer15.ps1from Releases -
Right-click it → Run with PowerShell
Or open PowerShell and run:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass & "$HOME\Downloads\vibestack-installer15.ps1"
-
Walk away. Come back in 20-30 minutes (first run downloads Docker images).
-
Double-click VIBESTACK-DASHBOARD.cmd on your Desktop to open the dashboard.
Note: Run as a regular user, not Administrator. The installer will prompt for elevation when needed.
Once installed, building an app looks like this:
- Click + NEW PROJECT on the dashboard, fill in what you want to build
- Import the project folder into Dyad (or Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code)
- Paste the PLAN prompt from the dashboard — AI writes a master plan, no code yet
- Paste the BUILD prompt — AI starts building Phase 1
- Paste CONTINUE for each next phase
- Paste FIX when something breaks
- Database tables appear automatically as the AI writes migrations
- Your app runs live at
http://localhost:55010the whole time
All four prompts are one-click copy from the dashboard. You never have to remember them.
These are not obvious. They took months of iterative testing to find.
pnpm layout conflict — Dyad uses pnpm internally, which creates a symlinked node_modules that breaks Next.js CSS processing on Windows. VibeStack detects this on every app start and converts to a clean npm layout automatically.
Database migrations never applying — AI tools write migration files but have no mechanism to run them. VibeStack applies migrations on startup, watches for new files and applies them within 4 seconds, and provides a manual PUSH DB button as a fallback.
Port conflicts — Each project gets a 40-port block. Nothing ever steps on anything else.
Admin vs user permissions — The installer runs as admin, IDEs run as the current user. VibeStack grants the correct permissions after project creation so IDEs can write files without EPERM errors.
Hyper-V port reservation — On some machines, Hyper-V randomly claims port 9999. VibeStack detects and reserves it during installation before Hyper-V can grab it.
Everything lives at C:\VIBESTACK\:
C:\VIBESTACK\
├── DASHBOARD\ Node.js/Express dashboard server
├── PROJECTS\ One folder per app
│ └── YOUR_APP\
│ ├── app\ Next.js App Router
│ ├── components\
│ ├── scripts\ Migration watcher, DB startup, env sync
│ ├── supabase\ Local DB config + migration files
│ ├── ATHENA_EXPORT\ AI memory (MASTERPLAN, PROGRESS, etc.)
│ ├── AI_RULES.md Rules for AI agents working in this project
│ ├── PROMPT.md Your app brief
│ └── START-APP.cmd Double-click to run
├── TOOLS\
│ └── Athena-Public\ Shared AI memory across projects
├── VIBESTACK-DASHBOARD.cmd
├── VIBESTACK-WIPE.cmd
└── Create-New-VibeStack-App.cmd
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Installer | PowerShell 5.1 |
| Dashboard | Node.js + Express |
| App framework | Next.js 15 (React, App Router) |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS v3 |
| Database | Supabase local (Postgres via Docker) |
| Migrations | Supabase CLI + chokidar watcher |
| AI memory | Markdown flat files |
| Primary AI IDE | Dyad |
| Also works with | Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code + Cline/Roo |
- Windows only — this was built for Windows 10/11. Mac/Linux support would require a rewrite.
- Watchpack warnings — harmless errors about Windows system files (
pagefile.sysetc.) appear in the terminal. They don't affect anything. - npm shamefully-hoist warning — cosmetic warning from npm not understanding pnpm settings. Harmless.
- First Dyad import is slow — after importing a project into Dyad, the first
START APPtakes 1-2 minutes to convert the pnpm layout to npm. Every subsequent start is instant.
Pull requests welcome. The entire platform is one .ps1 file with JavaScript embedded as PowerShell heredocs.
A few things to know before editing:
- All embedded JS lives inside
@'...'@literal heredoc blocks — no PowerShell variable expansion inside - Zero non-ASCII characters allowed — PowerShell 5.1 mangles UTF-8 in heredocs
- Regex inside heredocs needs double-escaping:
\\r?\\nnot\r?\n - After any edit, validate with:
grep -cE "@'$" vibestack-installer15.ps1 # should equal 13 grep -c "^'@" vibestack-installer15.ps1 # should equal 13 grep -Pc '[^\x00-\x7F]' vibestack-installer15.ps1 # should equal 0
Things that would make great contributions:
- Mac/Linux support (or a separate installer)
- VS Code / Cline walkthrough (analogous to the Dyad workflow)
- Additional AI IDE compatibility
- Better error recovery in the dashboard
- Tests
MIT — do whatever you want with it. If you make it better, that's the whole point.
Built by a solo builder who needed this to exist. If it helps you ship something, that's enough.