Dock dock.build · v0.3
Exploration plan · June 2026

Dock

An open-source home for AI-generated HTML & Markdown artifacts: permanent URLs, inline comments, revision history, and an agent loop that works from Claude Code, Codex, and every LLM app. Self-host it on boring standard tech, or use our hosted tier.

Open source · Apache-2.0 Self-host · Postgres + S3 + 1 container Any agent · CLI / MCP / API Hosted tier · flat pricing

Executive summary

The bet, in five sentences

1
Artifacts are the new unit of work.Every model now ships HTML/MD things — specs, dashboards, reports, prototypes — dozens of times a day. Shopify's internal "Quick" hit 50,000+ sites in months.
2
They have no durable, neutral home.Native publish is vendor-locked and feature-poor; Vercel/Netlify are built for apps; display.dev is closed SaaS with no self-host.
3
The product is a loop, not a host.Publish → humans comment inline → agent reads threads back over MCP → republishes v2 at the same URL. The artifact becomes a living spec.
4
Open + self-hostable is the moat.Every LLM vendor will build their own silo; none can be neutral about rivals or ship self-host. We can — that's the empty quadrant.
5
Monetize convenience, not the core.Full engine is OSS. Revenue = hosted tier (flat, unlimited viewers) + enterprise self-host support/SSO/SLA — the Sentry/GitLab model.

Why now

HTML is overtaking Markdown as agents' preferred serious-output format, and every coding agent gained the ability to write full interactive pages this year.

display.dev just proved teams will pay for exactly this loop — but built it closed. The window to plant the open standard is before their protocol becomes the de-facto one.

Enterprise AI rollouts are hitting governance walls: "where does agent output live?" has no good answer today. Self-hostable + auditable is the answer procurement wants to hear.

The plan

Seven briefs, one argument

Decision log

What's settled, what's leaning, what's open

Positioning
One open, vendor-neutral home for artifacts from every LLM tool — the commons, not another silo. Differentiate on open source + self-host + open protocol, never on the loop alone.
Decided
Artifact kinds
All static content just works: single HTML/MD files and full build outputs (Astro, Vite, Next export, mdBook — any dist/ folder or zip), with SPA fallback routing. The unit is a bundle, not a file — Quick's core lesson.
Decided
Comments & versions in v1
Non-negotiable — they're what make this a workspace instead of a pastebin, and the basis of the agent loop.
Decided
Stack
Hono on one Node container (the Unkey lesson: never Workers-first), TanStack Start web app (static on CF hosted, embedded self-host), SQLite → Neon Postgres via env, fs → R2 blobs via env. Every layer modeled on n8n / Ghost / Outline / Cal.com with receipts — see Execution. Not Vercel: egress economics.
Decided
License
Apache-2.0 for maximum enterprise adoption. Risk: hyperscaler re-hosting. Mitigation: the hosted tier competes on convenience and the protocol is the moat — revisit only if it becomes real.
Leaning
Name
Dock, at dock.build — locked. Short, a real word, and the TLD is the pitch. CLI is dock, hosted URLs are {org}.dock.build, repo is github.com/Niftory/dock.build.
Decided
Team pricing
Flat per-org, unlimited viewers (category norm display.dev set at $49/mo Pro). Exact number needs a pricing pass against willingness-to-pay.
Open
Parent-org relationship
Separate open-source product/brand, or incubated under a parent? Affects repo org, hiring, and how much time it can take from the core roadmap.
Open

Path to launch

From zero to public in four phases

Phase 1 · Build Private alpha M1–M3: publish + sandboxed render, versions, comments + MCP read-back. Dogfood internally — every plan and review doc we make ships through Dock. exit: we prefer it to pasting files
Phase 2 · Harden Design partners M4–M5: auth/ACLs, audit log, compose + Helm, docs. 5–10 friendly teams, at least one with a real security review, to pressure-test self-host. exit: a stranger self-hosts unaided
Phase 3 · Open OSS launch Public repo + the Artifact Publish Protocol spec + Claude Code/Codex skills on day one. Launch on the strength of the loop demo: publish, comment, agent revises live. exit: external contributors + orgs in prod
Phase 4 · Monetize Hosted tier Same image, flat pricing, SSO gating. Enterprise motion follows bottom-up adoption: when usage hits a security review, the self-host answer is ready. exit: first paying team + support deal

Deliberately no calendar dates — this is an exploration plan. Sequencing and exit criteria are the commitments; timing follows staffing.

The bet in one line

The LLMs commoditize generation; the durable layer is where the output lives, who can comment on it, and how it changed over time. Own that as an open, neutral, self-hostable commons, and you become the default home no single model vendor is positioned to be.