My AI-built PHP engine in Rust passes 17% of PHP-src tests, renders WordPress

I made a framework for this https://github.com/alehlopeh/hallu

already been tried: https://github.com/samrolken/nokode

Maybe LLMs will eventually get to the place where it replaces even the OS kernel

Let me make sure I am hearing you right. 1) The person you report to asked you to accomplish a discrete task 2) of standing up one of the most common websites on the planet 3) and your response was to begin building your own custom CMS?

I know I am removing the train of thought that led you down this path, but is there anything I just said that is factually false?

Just to clarify: you think your vibecoded dashboard is more secure than WordPress? Not saying you're wrong, just wondering why you think you're right. Are you auditing the generated code, or is it a giant yolo?

I feel like not choosing WordPress was a great choice but I'm not sure about the rest of the comment. A simple html file might make for a good landing page though.

> because why not?

I'm not certain, but it seems like you're not being entirely serious here, however..

If you aren't joking, or for other people in this position, I'd first wonder if the landing page required a search function that would hypothetically be subject to the vulnerability, then I'd wonder about what the normal nature of your business is and how much latitude you personally have in the allocation of billable hours to arbitrary technology choices and whether those do actually align with the deliverable, then if I was the boss I might wonder why you created a bunch of (potentially) out-of-scope random liability using unusual lesser-known tools based on a personal vendetta against WordPress.

I've been in this position, conceptually if not literally, and I've probably been (in a way, rightfully) fired for it, but my country's labor protections are likely not quite as good as Denmark's.

If there's a question about why money was spent on implementing a bunch of stuff nobody knows for a reason nobody cares about, especially for a very short-lived thing like a landing page, then it's a sticky situation if the answer is basically novelty. Something like this, if it does serve a purpose, should be planned for and a case made for it, but that also doesn't really seem like agency work.

If I was asked for WordPress, which I have, and I delivered Rust, I don't think I'd keep that job, but mileage may vary.

Most work is about solving problems as they are, not what we wish them to be, and if a 5 min job becomes a month long job that the customer didn't ask for, it's an extreme case of yak-shaving.

Why not use headless WordPress?

The article doesn't go into how they managed the AI context when implementing things but I would not be surprised if it was done in a methodical way, 80% - 90% of the test could have passed.

What I suspect is this 17% is the exact sub-set it needed to hack together to make the goal (running some example website) a reality as this is what those dodgy weasels do if you let them. Then you get to spend 200x the time to fill in the rest of the "speculative features deferred due to no real consumer" on top of whatever dodgy system they made up, which is usually whatever is easiest/closest to the literature instead of the actual intended design. Lots and lots of fun to be had doing the full-pipeline refactors to add that last 2% which need support from tip to tail.

It's all in good fun, though... probably?

Standards vary.

Does anyone know why we write code anymore? Why not pass through to an llm that generates the page on the fly (ssr)?

Is it cost ?

Money probably. This is a cash burn project.

Even an AGI can't accomplish the impossible.

What do you mean? What's cost effective about this?

> Maybe the takeaway is that 20% is about all the LLM can muster

At this point there's a long list of projects that have used LLMs to rewrite a system in Rust including:

  - Bun (https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/pull/30412)
  - Valkey (https://github.com/ianm199/valdr)
  - Git (https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit)
  - Postgres (https://github.com/malisper/pgrust)

With the exception of Bun, these projects were done pre-fable too, so I bet Fable will make these types of rewrites even easier.

I mean, I got them to 100% using the official conformance suite on my copy-and-patch jit compiler/interpreter WASM VM...

Saw that Salt Language article a day to two ago on how they do the static verification as part of the compilation process (or whatever they really get up to) and that's next on the agenda, tried that with a JavaCard VM I was poking at as its 'computation space' is much smaller but that was too much for my poor little laptop to handle but, apparently, this Salt thing is much different and actually tractable so, we'll see, still working out the details.

This is a pretty cool experiment. Thanks for sharing!

Compare with FrankenPHP?

Will you answer questions yourself, or will you simply pass on what your LLM of choice writes for you?

Edit: On further inspection, the blog design, the blog build, the blog articles and even the anecdotes used in the articles are entirely Claude generated.

Stop being so lazy. Get Claude to do something interesting and use your own intellect to assess and challenge the work in your write up. Or the other way around. Inject some amount of human work, at least. Otherwise, what's the point in sharing?