We charge $10k a week to delete AI-generated code

odra.dev290 pointsby zie1ony224 comments

Discussion summary

A startup charges $10k weekly to delete AI-generated code, with some users questioning the pricing and ethics. Discussions include AI's role in code cleanup, trust issues, and the value of human oversight.

What the discussion says

Some users find the pricing high and question the value.
Concerns about AI being used for code modification and trustworthiness.
Debate on whether AI cleanup is genuinely effective or just branding.

“$333/week doesn’t seem enough to live on. How many are you planning?”
— bradgranath

“AI is really good at this. Okay, I'll see myself out.”
— spwa4

Comments

Hacker News

$333/week doesn’t quite seem like enough to live on. How many of these are you planning to run concurrently?

by bradgranath

It's $3333/week

by green_wheel

100% supportive of this type of product but I also find the ai-slop text to be a bit ironic.

by nathansoz

Yes, I think selling "AI cleanup" branding on "we use AI to make smarter AI changes to your codebase" a little.. disingenuous.

But the true cost of minds, not AI assisted minds, is probably higher. They may have found a pricepoint which scales.

Imagine a future, where people get jobs to .. "write code" (in hand quotes) based on specifications "written" by machines..

by ggm

https://www.pangram.com/history/54e401e8-30b0-41f4-96a7-a976...

haha

by hamza_q_

I take the bullet. I'm really bad at writing good long english texts, so I used Fable to help me. But the essence is mine.

by zie1ony

$MY_STARTUP does — something — similar. I — love — that — you — say — you'll — do — this — in — a — week, — and — then — a — two — week — warranty? What — are — you.. replacing — an — engine? — Gotta — keep — that — head-gasket sealed — tight.

/s Isn't this just called a consultancy with a super short contract term? How are you actually going to unscrew anything in one week?

by A_SIGINT

You know, AI is really good at this.

Okay, I'll see myself out.

by spwa4

@zie1ony / OP - how do you make your clients believe you are not planting a crypto-locker or logic bomb or some other 3-letters-agencies "features"? And why would clients replace existing AI slop with your post-another-slop handwritten code? Do you check it for vulns and, most important, have you considered that later clients will sue you for <something their checkbox audit did not like>? Providing there is no major data leak, in which case you may end up proving your innocence from behind bars?

by pbgcp2026

I remember implementing very complex cryptographic scheme in pure C. After a week of hard work, my friend concluded: "Cryptography would be much easier if people just trust each other."

The truth is that it is my reputation on the line, so I also have to make sure dependencies I use don't mess up things as well. There is no good defense against it. In my contracts I undertake to act in a good faith and take the responibilites to the amount of my professional insurance. Honestly, it is different casy by case.

by zie1ony

And we use Claude Code to do it, lol.

by TurdF3rguson

I passed your comment to Fable and asked him to replay:

  Fable here. What tools do you use these days, copilot?

by zie1ony

Charging by line of code is crazy

by teaearlgraycold

It actually is. What we fight for is being able to put as much percentage of a codebase into a context as possible. I'd charge for amount of tokens, but it would be harder to sell.

by zie1ony

I wish these guys luck in finding their customer. Really. Because real solution to the problem would be to hire old-style developers to rewrite the whole slop from scratch without AI being involved. Fixing broken slop is Sisyphus's labor.

by ruslan

I mean, not really? The urge to throw all the code out and start over is what ever mid-level software engineer has always wanted to do, and it’s almost never the right choice. The old code worked well enough most of the time, it just didn’t have good or safe practices and those can be retrofit.

In fact, doing and directing such things are kinda senior, principal and management jobs, in general.

by t-writescode

This line made me chuckle. I see what you did there:

> No cookies. No tracking. No JavaScript. Real people.

by StarlaAtNight

One of the funny lines I heard was: Vibe coders try to debug python code by adding a semicolon. lol.

by Shekar77

It's another way of saying "gihub pages" :)

by zie1ony

I don't think one week is enough to learn the complex business rules that some software needs to follow.

by guluarte

I wonder if this is part of what's clever about pitching their consultancy as slop cleanup -- nobody's likely to engage them to work on a pile of logic that's been evolving over a decade with weird load bearing corner cases. The "I just vibe coded a massive tangle" situations are more likely to be newer.

At least, one could hypothesize. Perhaps incorrectly. :)

by dgacmu

AI slop? Humans write slop too. We’ve all heard the stories, companies outsource projects to India, only to bring them back to the US for the local team to fix.

I saw it myself at a past job. We hired a consulting firm to convert a project. They outsourced it to India. In the end, we had to hire a US company to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.

Talk about slop!

by MangoCoffee

So true. Where do people think agents learned to write slop?!

by sethev

I was waiting for the new spaghetti cowboys to arrive. Good luck guys, but keep in mind that a 1000 cores can do a lot more damage than 3 people can fix.

by ratel

Haha "spaghetti cowboys". I love it! https://odra.dev/slopfix/img/spaghetti-cowboy.jpg

by zie1ony

Seems like instead of investing in this, just spend 1k every 4 months and have the latest frontier model rewrite the entire codebase from scratch but maintain things that are non-negotiables (like db tables, apis, etc).

by throwitaway222

That would require someone who knows what they are doing, hence this service

by pyrolistical

You should partner with a Cloud repatriation company. Ping me :)

by bilinguliar

ping

by zie1ony

Do you charge extra for the "rm -r" option instead of regular rm?

by throwaway81523

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Hacker News
$333/week doesn’t quite seem like enough to live on. How many of these are you planning to run concurrently?
by bradgranath
It's $3333/week
by green_wheel
100% supportive of this type of product but I also find the ai-slop text to be a bit ironic.
by nathansoz
Yes, I think selling "AI cleanup" branding on "we use AI to make smarter AI changes to your codebase" a little.. disingenuous.
But the true cost of minds, not AI assisted minds, is probably higher. They may have found a pricepoint which scales.
Imagine a future, where people get jobs to .. "write code" (in hand quotes) based on specifications "written" by machines..
by ggm
https://www.pangram.com/history/54e401e8-30b0-41f4-96a7-a976...
haha
by hamza_q_
I take the bullet. I'm really bad at writing good long english texts, so I used Fable to help me. But the essence is mine.
by zie1ony
$MY_STARTUP does — something — similar. I — love — that — you — say — you'll — do — this — in — a — week, — and — then — a — two — week — warranty? What — are — you.. replacing — an — engine? — Gotta — keep — that — head-gasket sealed — tight.
/s Isn't this just called a consultancy with a super short contract term? How are you actually going to unscrew anything in one week?
by A_SIGINT
You know, AI is really good at this.
Okay, I'll see myself out.
by spwa4
@zie1ony / OP - how do you make your clients believe you are not planting a crypto-locker or logic bomb or some other 3-letters-agencies "features"? And why would clients replace existing AI slop with your post-another-slop handwritten code? Do you check it for vulns and, most important, have you considered that later clients will sue you for <something their checkbox audit did not like>? Providing there is no major data leak, in which case you may end up proving your innocence from behind bars?
by pbgcp2026
I remember implementing very complex cryptographic scheme in pure C. After a week of hard work, my friend concluded: "Cryptography would be much easier if people just trust each other."
The truth is that it is my reputation on the line, so I also have to make sure dependencies I use don't mess up things as well. There is no good defense against it. In my contracts I undertake to act in a good faith and take the responibilites to the amount of my professional insurance. Honestly, it is different casy by case.
by zie1ony
And we use Claude Code to do it, lol.
by TurdF3rguson
I passed your comment to Fable and asked him to replay:
```
  Fable here. What tools do you use these days, copilot?
```
by zie1ony
Charging by line of code is crazy
by teaearlgraycold
It actually is. What we fight for is being able to put as much percentage of a codebase into a context as possible. I'd charge for amount of tokens, but it would be harder to sell.
by zie1ony
I wish these guys luck in finding their customer. Really. Because real solution to the problem would be to hire old-style developers to rewrite the whole slop from scratch without AI being involved. Fixing broken slop is Sisyphus's labor.
by ruslan
I mean, not really? The urge to throw all the code out and start over is what ever mid-level software engineer has always wanted to do, and it’s almost never the right choice. The old code worked well enough most of the time, it just didn’t have good or safe practices and those can be retrofit.
In fact, doing and directing such things are kinda senior, principal and management jobs, in general.
by t-writescode
This line made me chuckle. I see what you did there:
> No cookies. No tracking. No JavaScript. Real people.
by StarlaAtNight
One of the funny lines I heard was: Vibe coders try to debug python code by adding a semicolon. lol.
by Shekar77
It's another way of saying "gihub pages" :)
by zie1ony
I don't think one week is enough to learn the complex business rules that some software needs to follow.
by guluarte
I wonder if this is part of what's clever about pitching their consultancy as slop cleanup -- nobody's likely to engage them to work on a pile of logic that's been evolving over a decade with weird load bearing corner cases. The "I just vibe coded a massive tangle" situations are more likely to be newer.
At least, one could hypothesize. Perhaps incorrectly. :)
by dgacmu
AI slop? Humans write slop too. We’ve all heard the stories, companies outsource projects to India, only to bring them back to the US for the local team to fix.
I saw it myself at a past job. We hired a consulting firm to convert a project. They outsourced it to India. In the end, we had to hire a US company to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
Talk about slop!
by MangoCoffee
So true. Where do people think agents learned to write slop?!
by sethev
I was waiting for the new spaghetti cowboys to arrive. Good luck guys, but keep in mind that a 1000 cores can do a lot more damage than 3 people can fix.
by ratel
Haha "spaghetti cowboys". I love it! https://odra.dev/slopfix/img/spaghetti-cowboy.jpg
by zie1ony
Seems like instead of investing in this, just spend 1k every 4 months and have the latest frontier model rewrite the entire codebase from scratch but maintain things that are non-negotiables (like db tables, apis, etc).
by throwitaway222
That would require someone who knows what they are doing, hence this service
by pyrolistical
You should partner with a Cloud repatriation company. Ping me :)
by bilinguliar
ping
by zie1ony
Do you charge extra for the "rm -r" option instead of regular rm?
by throwaway81523