---
type: concept
title: "Community-Driven Development"
description: "Building products and open source in public with a community, using a public roadmap and shared learning."
tags: [community, open-source, building-in-public]
videos: [im-building-the-best-open-source-ai-coding-assistant-with-your-help, this-boltnew-fork-is-exploding-dont-miss-out-on-whats-happening, ottodev-is-becoming-the-best-open-source-ai-coding-assistant, our-boltnew-forks-most-requested-feature-is-finally-here, were-taking-this-ai-coding-assistant-to-the-moon-plus-installation-instructions, breaking-news-ottodev-is-now-the-official-open-source-boltnew, boltdiy-the-future-of-open-source-ai-coding-whats-next, i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months, introducing-archon-an-ai-agent-that-builds-ai-agents, i-built-my-second-brain-with-claude-code-obsidian-skills-heres-how, how-id-learn-ai-agents-fast-if-i-had-to-start-over-full-roadmap, how-to-dominate-with-ai-in-2025, the-most-profitable-ai-niche-no-one-is-talking-about]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Community-Driven Development

Community-driven development is building products, especially open source, in public and with the people who use them, so direction and momentum come from a shared community rather than a single maintainer. Cole's clearest statement of the intent is from Archon: "I'm building Archon in iterations for two reasons. First, I'm building in public. I want you to be able to contribute and follow along," and simultaneously "I'm using this as a teaching tool to show you how to build more complex agents." The two motives, contribution and teaching, run through everything he builds this way.

The mechanics are concrete. The roadmap is public and jointly owned: "since this is an open source project there's no timelines here... this is totally subject to change as we work on casting the vision together," and "anyone can contribute their ideas to the road map here and we're constantly going to be evolving this." Contributors are given real authority, not just a suggestion box: "with a core contributor you're actually a maintainer of the project with access to the repo you can do things like approve pull requests, merge pull requests." The result is genuine collective ownership, "it is really turning into our fork instead of my fork because we really are working on this together", and scale beyond any one person, "having individuals like you help me is what keeps this project growing because it is definitely already gotten to the point where it is way bigger than me."

Crucially, community-driven does not mean directionless. Cole is explicit that a fork run "willy-nilly without any direction" will die, so the community's job is to "always push this project forward with a clear vision." The same collaborative posture powers the [Live Agent Studio](../entities/tools/live-agent-studio.md), "a community-driven platform filled with cutting edge agents... I've created a way for you and the community to contribute agents." And the value flows back to the builder too: for anyone learning AI, "one of the biggest regrets that I have when I first started learning AI agents was not doing it with other people... it's so important to find a community and learn and collaborate."

## Builds on

- [Open-Source & Local AI Coding](./open-source-ai-coding.md) - the substrate that makes public contribution and forking possible.
- [Learn by Building](./learn-by-building.md) - the individual habit that community development scales across many people.

## Related

- [Provider Independence](./provider-independence.md) - open, community projects avoid lock-in to one vendor.
- [Extending a Platform via API + Marketplace](./extend-the-platform.md) and [Extensible Plugin Architecture](./extension-marketplace.md) - how a community adds capability on top of a shared core.
- [Skills](./skills.md) - shareable, community-contributed units of capability (e.g. Second Brain's brand/voice and PowerPoint skills).
- [AI Agent Business Niches](./ai-agent-business-niches.md) - thousands of businesses building around a shared platform like GoHighLevel.
- [No-Code Automation](./no-code-automation.md) - a common contribution surface for community-built agents.
- [Eric Simons](../entities/people/eric-simons.md) - CEO and co-founder of StackBlitz (maker of bolt.new) who announces the partnership making the community fork the official open-source bolt.DIY and frames it as a real-world benchmark frontier labs test models against.

## Tools

- [Archon](../entities/tools/archon.md) - built in public, in iterations, as both a product and a teaching tool.
- [bolt.diy](../entities/tools/bolt-diy.md) / [oTToDev](../entities/tools/ottodev.md) - the community fork of [bolt.new](../entities/tools/bolt-new.md) with a shared, contributor-driven roadmap.
- [Live Agent Studio](../entities/tools/live-agent-studio.md) - a community-driven, open-source agent platform.
- [GoHighLevel](../entities/tools/gohighlevel.md) - a platform with thousands of businesses built around it.

## Sources

- [Introducing Archon - an AI Agent that BUILDS AI Agents](../sources/introducing-archon-an-ai-agent-that-builds-ai-agents.md) - "[0:06:40] I'm building Archon in iterations for two reasons. First, I'm building in public. I want you to be able to contribute and follow along"
- [bolt.diy: The Future of Open Source AI Coding - What's Next?](../sources/boltdiy-the-future-of-open-source-ai-coding-whats-next.md) - "[0:07:52] anyone can contribute their ideas to the road map here and we're constantly going to be evolving this as we're building the best open source AI coding assistant"
- [This Bolt.new Fork is EXPLODING - Don't Miss out on What's Happening!](../sources/this-boltnew-fork-is-exploding-dont-miss-out-on-whats-happening.md) - "[0:02:20] with a core contributor you're actually a maintainer of the project with access to the repo you can do things like approve pull requests merge pull requests"
- [I'm Building the BEST Open Source AI Coding Assistant with YOUR Help](../sources/im-building-the-best-open-source-ai-coding-assistant-with-your-help.md) - "[0:15:45] it is really turning into our fork instead of my fork because we really are working on this together"
- [oTToDev is Becoming the BEST Open Source AI Coding Assistant](../sources/ottodev-is-becoming-the-best-open-source-ai-coding-assistant.md) - "[0:06:27] if we're just implementing a bunch of random features willy-nilly without any direction this project is going to die"
- [We're Taking this AI Coding Assistant to the MOON [Plus Installation Instructions!]](../sources/were-taking-this-ai-coding-assistant-to-the-moon-plus-installation-instructions.md) - "[0:01:16] having individuals like you help me is what keeps this project growing because it is definitely already gotten to the point where it is way bigger than me"
- [I Created the BEST AI Agent Platform in Just 2 MONTHS!](../sources/i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months.md) - "[0:00:49] I've created a way for you and the community to contribute agents to the platform so together we can build the best collection of AI agents"
- [How I'd Learn AI Agents FAST if I Had to Start Over (Full Roadmap)](../sources/how-id-learn-ai-agents-fast-if-i-had-to-start-over-full-roadmap.md) - "[0:16:41] One of the biggest regrets that I have when I first started learning AI agents was not doing it with other people."
- [How to DOMINATE with AI in 2025](../sources/how-to-dominate-with-ai-in-2025.md) - "[0:26:58] finding an AI community to learn and grow with other people. You do not want to go through the wild ride of AI alone"
- [I Built My Second Brain with Claude Code + Obsidian + Skills (Here's How)](../sources/i-built-my-second-brain-with-claude-code-obsidian-skills-heres-how.md) - "[0:13:01] the brand and voice generator because this skill is going to guide you through creating the context that makes the second brain really specific to you"
