We found the loophole.

GM Builders 👋 Welcome to this week’s MakerThrive newsletter, we have some updates in the space for you, as well as some frameworks to make you a better builder.

TL;DR: GitHub Copilot Chat—the OG spark behind the AI coding trend—is now fully open-source under the MIT license. That means you can fork it, remix it, and build your own AI coding agent—legally.

🛠️ Devs win big: Copilot and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) are now yours to tinker with. This levels the playing field against tools like Cursor ($9B valuation) and Windsurf (acquired by OpenAI for $3B).

⚔️ Wild timing: Just days after OpenAI dropped its Codeex agent and bought Windsurf, Microsoft dropped the source code to Copilot. Petty? Strategic? Probably both.

💡 What it means: Anyone can now build AI-powered dev tools with the same bones as Copilot. Expect a wave of indie dev environments, faster innovation, and fewer black boxes.

TL;DR: In this convo with Greg Isenberg, Steph shares a $5K startup giveaway and unloads a firehose of startup prompts—from open page builders to AI-powered health dashboards and dating apps that ditch the swipe.

🧠 Open Pages = personality dashboards: Think Notion meets Strava for your life. Surfing stats, supplement stacks, sobriety streaks—Steph thinks “OpenPages.me” should be a thing. Track what matters, share it how you want.

🧲 Lead magnet sites that convert: Nobody wants to “subscribe to a newsletter” anymore. But offer a popular guide, and people line up. There’s a gap for a Squarespace-style site builder that bakes this in.

💉 The Integrated Health Stack: Oura, CGMs, Strava, lab tests… they all live in silos. Steph’s dream product is a centralized health dashboard with an AI layer that actually helps you connect the dots.

💌 AI Matchmaking > Swiping: She predicts the future of dating will ditch the swipe and use your data (Goodreads, Strava, memes, etc.) to find smarter matches—and maybe even book the first date for you.

📂 Directory GPTs: Steph sees a new wave of “directory” companies—only now they’re interactive. Imagine a Nomad List-style tool you can chat with. Built with GPTs, trained on niche data, monetized with leads or subs.

TL;DR: OpenAI’s new Codex agent is basically an AI software engineer—and Creator Magic just built an entire automated dev workflow around it.

👨‍💻 Autopilot dev: Codex auto-picks up tasks like bug fixes, CSS refactors, and pull requests—without needing to be prompted. It even ships working PRs while you’re working on another project (we know you are).

🔄 Connected stack: GitHub + Airtable + Zapier + Gemini. He turns user feedback into enhanced prompts using Gemini, then sends them to Codex for instant implementation.

⚡ Magic links: Every approved feature request in Airtable gets a one-click Codex link with a pre-filled prompt, so Codex starts coding the second you open it.

📱 Real output: In minutes, Codex refactored his app’s CSS, fixed mobile responsiveness, and preserved credits on failed OpenAI image generations—all without breaking the site.

You don’t need to babysit AI agents anymore. With a smart prompt system + automation layer, your side project can literally ship itself.

TL;DR: Jono Catliff shows off 10 powerful AI agents you can build with n8n—the open-source alternative to Zapier that's gaining traction for being way more affordable and flexible.

⚙️ Calendar GPT: Schedule meetings via ChatGPT that sync directly to Google Calendar, with conflict checks included.

📥 Inbox AI: Auto-sorts, labels, drafts replies, and forwards invoices—hands-free email triage.

🧾 Receipt parser: Snap a pic of any receipt or PDF, and it auto-logs into your Google Sheet, line by line.

📞 AI caller bot: An LLM makes real outbound phone calls for tasks like booking appointments or confirming meetings.

All workflows are free + prebuilt. Just copy, tweak, and deploy.

TL;DR: Sean Kochel shares a bulletproof 3-step system to help AI tools (like Claude) actually understand what you want to build—so you stop vibing blindly and start building smarter.

🧠 Step 1: Architect with Precision
Use Sean’s Claude prompt to map out every feature, tech stack decision, system diagram, and MVP flow—before writing a single line of code.

🖼️ Step 2: Design the UI Before You Build
Prompt Claude to visualize each screen in every state—blank, loading, success, error—so you can spot design issues before they slow you down.

⚙️ Step 3: Write Dev-Ready Specs
Generate technical specs with pseudo-code, API payloads, DB schemas, and component breakdowns—basically a full PRD for Cursor or Taskmaster.