Cerebras App Generator

A proof of concept demonstrating the power of Cerebras AI for automated application generation. This tool uses the Qwen3-480B Coder model to generate complete applications with automatic Docker containerization and management.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• Docker - Required for containerization and app deployment
• Git - For version control

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/restyler/poor-mans-lovable.git
cd poor-mans-lovable

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Set up environment:

cp .env.example .env  # if .env.example exists
# Edit .env and add your CEREBRAS_API_KEY

Setup

1. Create .env file with your Cerebras API key:

CEREBRAS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Note: Get your API key from Cerebras AI

Usage

Generate a New App

node create-app.js "Build a todo list REST API with Express.js"

List Running Apps

node create-app.js --list

Shows all generated apps with:

• Running status and port
• App description and local path
• Volume information (ID and storage size) for running apps
• Creation timestamp

Stop an App

node create-app.js --stop simple-todo-rest

Remove an App

node create-app.js --remove simple-todo-rest

Completely removes:

• Docker container and image
• Associated Docker volumes and data
• Local files and directories
• App tracking from database

Continuous Improvement

Improve an Existing App

node create-app.js --improve "Add user authentication" --app todo-app

Continuously enhance apps with new features:

• 🔄 Semantic Versioning: Each improvement creates a new version (v1.0.0 → v1.1.0)
• 🐳 Blue-Green Deployment: Zero-downtime updates with automatic rollback
• 📝 Change Tracking: Monitors which files were modified, added, or removed
• 🔙 Rollback Support: Restore previous versions if improvements fail
• ⚡ Optimized Builds: 5-10x faster rebuilds using Docker layer caching

Version Management

# View all versions of an app
node create-app.js --versions todo-app

# Rollback to a previous version
node create-app.js --rollback todo-app v1.0.0

# Compare versions
node create-app.js --diff todo-app v1.0.0 v1.1.0

Improvement Examples

# Add new features
node create-app.js --improve "Add dark mode toggle" --app todo-app
node create-app.js --improve "Add user authentication" --app blog-app
node create-app.js --improve "Add real-time notifications" --app chat-app

# Enhance UI/UX
node create-app.js --improve "Make responsive for mobile" --app portfolio-site
node create-app.js --improve "Add search functionality" --app blog-app

# Backend improvements
node create-app.js --improve "Add API rate limiting" --app todo-api
node create-app.js --improve "Add data validation" --app user-service

Features

• 🤖 AI-Powered Generation: Uses Cerebras AI to generate complete applications
• 🔄 Continuous Improvement: Iteratively enhance apps with version management and rollback
• 📁 Organized Structure: Each app gets its own folder in ./tmp/
• 🐳 Docker Integration: Automatic containerization and port management
• ⚡ Optimized Builds: Multi-stage Docker builds with layer caching for 5-10x faster rebuilds
• 🔙 Blue-Green Deployment: Zero-downtime updates with automatic rollback on failure
• 📊 Performance Tracking: Displays API latency and token usage
• 🗂️ App Management: JSON-based storage to track all generated apps with full version history
• 🔒 Safe Generation: Generated files are isolated in tmp/ to protect your project
• 🎨 Tailwind CSS v4 Support: Proper PostCSS configuration and modern styling
• 🧠 Intelligent Analysis: LLM-powered app structure detection and optimization
• 📝 Change Tracking: File-level diff tracking and semantic versioning

Generated App Structure

./tmp/
├── simple-todo-rest/     # Auto-generated descriptive folder name
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── server.js
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── controllers/
│   └── models/
├── nodejs-weather-api/   # Each app gets its own container
│   ├── Dockerfile        # Auto-generated Docker setup
│   └── ...
└── apps.json            # Tracks all generated apps

Examples

# Generate a REST API
node create-app.js "Create a blog REST API with user authentication"

# Generate a web scraper
node create-app.js "Build a Node.js web scraper for news articles"

# Generate a real-time chat app
node create-app.js "Create a Socket.io chat application with rooms"

# Generate a modern frontend app with Tailwind CSS
node create-app.js "Create a todo app with Tailwind CSS styling"

# Generate a full-stack application
node create-app.js "Build a full-stack blog with React frontend and Express backend"

API Response Format

The tool expects Cerebras to return files in this format:

<file path="filename.js">
// file content here
</file>

Prompt Management

The tool uses modular prompts for different generation phases:

• Analysis Prompts (prompts/analysis.js): App structure detection and requirements analysis
• Generation Prompts (prompts/generation.js): Main application generation with Tailwind CSS v4 support
• Enhancement Prompts (prompts/enhancement.js): LLM customization based on app type

Multi-Stage Generation Process

The app generation follows a sophisticated multi-stage approach to ensure optimal results:

🔍 Stage 1: Analysis

const analysis = await this.analyzeAppStructure(prompt);
// Determines: appType, framework, buildTool, styling, database, etc.

Purpose: Intelligent detection of app requirements using LLM analysis

• LLM-Powered: Uses Cerebras AI to analyze the user's prompt
• Smart Classification: Determines if app is frontend, backend, or fullstack
• Framework Detection: Identifies React, Vue, Express, etc.
• Fallback System: Keyword-based detection if LLM analysis fails

🎯 Stage 2: Enhancement

const enhancementPrompt = createEnhancementPrompt(prompt, analysis);
// Customizes generation based on analysis results

Purpose: Context-aware customization based on analysis results

• App-Type Specific: Different instructions for frontend, backend, fullstack
• Dynamic Content: Includes missing files, dependencies, recommendations
• Contextual Adaptation: Adapts prompt based on detected requirements

Enhancement Examples:

• Frontend: Focuses on UI components, styling, responsive design
• Backend: Emphasizes API routes, database integration, authentication
• Fullstack: Combines both frontend and backend requirements

⚙️ Stage 3: Generation

const generationPrompt = generationPrompt(enhancementPrompt);
// Adds universal technical requirements and best practices

Purpose: Universal foundation with technical standards and best practices

• Universal Requirements: Core dependencies, file structures, configurations
• Technical Standards: Tailwind CSS v4 setup, SQLite usage, dependency management
• Best Practices: Build tools, PostCSS configs, Docker considerations

🔧 Stage 4: Post-Generation Fixes

await this.applyPostGenerationFixes(appPath, analysis);
// Ensures proper configuration and dependencies

Purpose: Automatic fixes and validation after generation

• Dependency Validation: Ensures all required packages are included
• Configuration Fixes: Creates missing config files (postcss.config.js, etc.)
• Syntax Updates: Updates CSS files to use correct Tailwind v4 syntax

Prompt Architecture Benefits

🎯 Separation of Concerns

• Analysis: "What type of app do we need?" (Context)
• Enhancement: "What specific features does this app type need?" (Customization)
• Generation: "How do we build it properly?" (Standards)
• Fixes: "What common issues need to be resolved?" (Validation)

🔄 Flexibility & Maintainability

• Easy Updates: Modify universal standards in generation prompt
• App-Type Logic: Customize behavior in enhancement prompt
• Reusability: Generation prompt works for any app type
• Extensibility: Add new app types to enhancement prompt

📊 Example Workflow

User Input: "Create a todo app with Tailwind CSS"

Stage 1 (Analysis):
  → Detects: frontend, react, vite, tailwind, no database

Stage 2 (Enhancement):
  → Adds: "Modern frontend with react and vite"
  → Adds: "CRITICAL: Always create src/index.css with @import 'tailwindcss'"

Stage 3 (Generation):
  → Adds: "If using Tailwind CSS v4, include @tailwindcss/postcss"
  → Adds: "Create postcss.config.js with proper configuration"

Stage 4 (Fixes):
  → Creates: postcss.config.js if missing
  → Updates: CSS files to use @import syntax
  → Validates: All dependencies are present

Tailwind CSS v4 Support

All generated apps with Tailwind CSS now include:

• Proper @tailwindcss/postcss dependency
• Automatic postcss.config.js creation
• Correct @import "tailwindcss" syntax in CSS files
• Post-generation fixes to ensure proper configuration

Management

All apps are tracked in apps.json with:

• App name and description
• Generated folder path
• Docker container info
• Port assignments (starting from 3100)
• Creation timestamp
• Performance metrics (latency, tokens)

Recent Improvements

Tailwind CSS v4 Configuration Fix

Problem: Generated apps with Tailwind CSS v4 were missing proper PostCSS configuration, resulting in unstyled interfaces.

Solution:

• Added @tailwindcss/postcss dependency requirement
• Automatic postcss.config.js creation with proper configuration
• Updated CSS files to use @import "tailwindcss" syntax
• Post-generation fixes to ensure proper setup

Result: All future apps with Tailwind CSS v4 now display properly styled interfaces.

Intelligent App Analysis

• LLM-Powered Detection: Uses Cerebras AI to analyze app requirements and determine optimal structure
• Hybrid Generation: Combines Vite scaffolding with LLM enhancement for better results
• Smart Fallbacks: Keyword-based detection when LLM analysis fails
• App Type Detection: Automatically identifies frontend, backend, or fullstack requirements

Hybrid Generation Strategy

For frontend apps with Vite, the tool uses a sophisticated hybrid approach:

1. Vite Scaffolding: Creates base project structure using npm create vite@latest
2. LLM Enhancement: Customizes the scaffolded project with specific requirements
3. Fallback System: Falls back to pure LLM generation if scaffolding fails

This approach combines the reliability of Vite's scaffolding with the flexibility of LLM customization.

Performance

Benchmark Results

We generated 10 different applications to benchmark Cerebras API performance:

App Type	Complexity	Latency	Tokens	Files	Speed (tok/s)
Todo REST API	Simple	2.7s	1,757	5	650
Weather API	Medium	1.2s	1,390	7	1,116
File Upload API	Simple	1.8s	2,200	6	1,248
URL Shortener	Complex	2.8s	3,627	8	1,283
GraphQL API	Complex	1.9s	3,109	6	1,646
HTML Landing	Frontend	1.8s	2,815	3	1,587
Blog API	Complex	2.5s	4,950	4	1,946
Full-Stack Blog	Full-Stack	3.1s	6,167	8	1,984

Key Findings

🚀 Consistent Speed: 1.2-3.1 second latency across all app types
📈 High Throughput: 650-1,984 tokens/second generation speed
🎯 Quality Output: All apps generated with proper file structure and working code
📁 Multi-file Support: Successfully creates 3-8 files per application
🧠 Complex Logic: Handles GraphQL schemas, SQLite databases, authentication, full-stack applications

Performance Characteristics

• Simple APIs: ~1.5s average, ~1000 tok/s
• Complex Apps: ~2.5s average, ~1400 tok/s
• Full-Stack Apps: ~3.0s average, ~1900 tok/s
• Frontend Apps: ~1.8s average, ~1400 tok/s

Each generation shows:

⚡ Latency: 1889ms
📊 Tokens - Prompt: 51, Completion: 3058, Total: 3109

Database Integration

🗄️ SQLite Support: All generated apps use SQLite for database needs instead of external dependencies like Redis or MongoDB. This ensures:

• Zero External Dependencies: No need to run separate database containers
• Persistent Storage: Database files are stored in Docker volumes
• Production Ready: Full SQL support with foreign keys and relationships
• Easy Development: Works out of the box without configuration

Database Features

• User authentication with bcrypt password hashing
• Blog posts with author relationships
• Comments system with foreign keys
• Automatic schema creation on startup
• Data persistence across container restarts

Docker Integration

• Auto-builds Docker images for each app
• Includes SQLite support in all containers
• Manages port allocation (3100, 3101, 3102...)
• Names containers by app name for easy management
• Creates persistent volumes for database storage
• Handles container start/stop/remove operations
• Supports different app types (frontend-only, backend-only, fullstack)
• Automatic template selection based on app structure

⚠️ Security Note

This proof of concept uses plain Docker containers for simplicity. For real-world deployments, more robust sandboxing technologies should be considered:

• Firecracker - AWS Lambda's microVM technology
• gVisor - Google's container runtime with enhanced security
• Kata Containers - Lightweight VMs for containers

See awesome-sandbox for a comprehensive list of sandboxing engines and security technologies.