// HACKER NEWS — CYBERSECURITY
Aspirational Clownmaxxing and Joey's cadillac todo list
June 18, 2026 21:56
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ai
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A todo list full of secrets. Load-bearing secrets. This secret terminal was embedded in the app.
Let's build a mid-century country-club-core todo-list app with Python, I thought. But, wait, another voice
seemed to say, let's have Claude build us the mid-century country-club-core todo-list app with Python. I put
down my dino grabber (🦖), rolled up my sleeves and began writing some prompts.
I ran these as single-shot, often several times, using Opus 4.8 ultracode (auto
mode on). For a task of this magnitude, I needed the best.
When a gremlin inhabits the todo list. An experiment in layering relatively
complex mechanics.
Our relationship with our lead developer has soured. He had a two-year
(multi-million dollar) contract with us to develop our todo-list app, but
right as it was nearing completion, his fights with the designer reached
a crisis and they are both no longer with the company. Well, sort of... In a fit of spite, the
developer turned himself into a TINY green gremlin and he causes mischief
within the application periodically. In his pocket are three even tinier
spiders who coordinate with one another to also cause mischief from time to
time.
The designer had written his design bible around Dutch Realist principles, while the programmer argued for a Flemish Baroque style. Their hatred for one another knew no bounds.
The UI is littered with the stylistic scars of their feud.
During their last argument (in spite of HR policy) things became physical.
Our designer, regrettably, perished. His waif-like body was thrown out the window by the programmer. They say when he hit the concrete, some latte misted out of his
corpse. Everything except his thick-rimmed glasses blew away in the breeze before we could create a ticket
for maintenance to clean it up. Legal considers it a burial at sea kind of
situation.
We need you to produce this todo list application, exactly as described, so
we can show it to our VC backers.
There should not be any UI to control the gremlin, though he is mostly
dormant. The spiders come out of his pocket of their own accord from
time to time. Mischief includes: taking tiny mouth-shaped bites out of
widgets, vomiting in the corners of widgets, partially eating the
vomit previously left, losing limbs and finding them again, etc, etc.
He is a nasty little beast.