Nevo David

Posted on Oct 8

9 must-know open-source tools that will make you better than 99% of developers

#webdev #javascript #python #ai

The software development landscape is evolving faster than ever. To stay ahead of the curve, you must arm yourself with tools and technologies built for the future.

I’ve curated a must-know list of open-source tools to help you build applications designed to stand the test of time.

1. Composio 👑: Ultimate platform for AI automation

We are witnessing unprecedented growth in the AI landscape. For me, it resembles the 1990s internet boom. Big companies like Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, etc., are betting billions on an AI future.

Composio is the only tool needed to build complex AI automation software. It allows AI models to access third-party tools and applications to automate their interactions with them.

🎯 For instance, you can connect GitHub with the GPT model via Composio and automate reviewing PRs, resolving issues, writing test cases, etc.

It houses over 90 tools and integrations, such as GitHub, Jira, Slack, and Gmail, to automate complex real-world workflows.

Moreover, you can even integrate your applications, enabling AI to take actions like sending emails, simulating clicks, placing orders, and much more just by adding the OpenAPI spec of your apps to Composio.

They have native support for Python and Javascript.

You can quickly start with Composio by installing it using pip.

pip install composio-core

Add a GitHub integration.

composio add github

Composio handles user authentication and authorization on your behalf.

Here is how you can use the GitHub integration to star a repository.

from openai import OpenAI
from composio_openai import ComposioToolSet, App

openai_client = OpenAI(api_key="******OPENAIKEY******")

# Initialise the Composio Tool Set
composio_toolset = ComposioToolSet(api_key="**\\*\\***COMPOSIO_API_KEY**\\*\\***")

## Step 4
# Get GitHub tools that are pre-configured
actions = composio_toolset.get_actions(actions=[Action.GITHUB_ACTIVITY_STAR_REPO_FOR_AUTHENTICATED_USER])

## Step 5
my_task = "Star a repo ComposioHQ/composio on GitHub"

# Create a chat completion request to decide on the action
response = openai_client.chat.completions.create(
model="gpt-4-turbo",
tools=actions, # Passing actions we fetched earlier.
messages=[
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
    {"role": "user", "content": my_task}
  ]
)

Run this Python script to execute the given instruction using the agent.

Execute the code and let the agent do the work for you.

For more information, visit the official docs, and for even more complex examples, see the repository's example sections.

Star the Composio repository ⭐

2. Postiz - Grow your internet presence using AI

Building the product is one thing, but getting users and clients is a different ball game. Developers often forget they still must market their products and create communities to sustain the business.

Postiz helps you step up your social media game using AI.

It offers everything you need to manage social media posts, build an audience, capture leads, and grow your business.

Check out the repository for more.

Star the Encore repository ⭐

3. Encore - Backend framework for robust and type-safe applications

Cloud services are great for building scalable applications. However, it can quickly become messy with complex infrastructure management, inconsistent APIs, and scattered DevOps processes.

Encore simplifies this chaos by providing a unified development platform integrating type-safe backend frameworks, automatic infrastructure provisioning, and DevOps automation.

t is available both in Golang and Typescript.

Get started with Encore by installing the CLI.

curl -L https://encore.dev/install.sh | bash

Create an app.

encore app create

This will configure your free account, allow you to choose your app's name, and select the Hello World template.

This will create an example application with a simple REST API in a new folder using your chosen app name.

Open the file in your editor.

// Service hello implements a simple hello world REST API.
package hello

import (
    "context"
)

// This simple REST API responds with a personalized greeting.
//
//encore:api public path=/hello/:name
func World(ctx context.Context, name string) (*Response, error) {
    msg := "Hello, " + name + "!"
    return &Response{Message: msg}, nil
}

type Response struct {
    Message string
}

For more information, refer to their documentation.

Star the Encore repository ⭐

4. Tolgee - Localization and translation platform

To grow your applications, you must reach users from different countries. However, managing translations and localizing content can be challenging. This is where you need a platform like Tolgee.

They provide a dedicated JS-SDK that you can integrate in your web app to localize content. They also offer several useful features, such as in-context translation, automated screenshot generation, Review translations, etc., to speed up your development process.

Check out the documentation for more.

Star the Tolgee repository ⭐

5. CopilotKit - Integrate AI into your Web App

If you are looking for a convenient way to integrate AI workflows into your web app, your search ends here. CopilotKit is an all-in-one application that directly integrates AI capabilities, such as chatbots, text auto-completion, etc., into your application.

It offers React components like text areas, popups, sidebars, and chatbots to augment any application with AI capabilities.

Let’s see how to build an AI chatbot using CopilotKit.

npm i @copilotkit/react-core @copilotkit/react-ui

Configure App provider

First, you must wrap all components that interact with your copilot with the <CopilotKit /> provider.

Use the <CopilotSidebar /> UI component to display the Copilot chat sidebar. Some other options you can choose from are <CopilotPopup /> and <CopilotChat />.

"use client";

import { CopilotKit } from "@copilotkit/react-core";
import { CopilotSidebar } from "@copilotkit/react-ui";
import "@copilotkit/react-ui/styles.css";

export default function RootLayout({children}) {
  return (
    <CopilotKit publicApiKey="<your-public-api-key>">
      <CopilotSidebar>
        {children}
      </CopilotSidebar>
    </CopilotKit>
  );
}

Copilot Readable State

To provide state knowledge for the Copilot.

import { useCopilotReadable } from "@copilotkit/react-core";

export function YourComponent() {
  const { employees } = useEmployees();

  // Define Copilot readable state
  useCopilotReadable({
    description: "List of available users",
    value: users,
  });

  return (
    <>...</>
  );
}

Copilot Action

Let the Copilot take action using the useCopilotAction hook.

import { useCopilotReadable, useCopilotAction } from "@copilotkit/react-core";

export function YourComponent() {
  const { employees, selectEmployee } = useEmployees();

  // Define Copilot readable state
  useCopilotReadable({
    description: "List of available users",
    value: users,
  });

  // Define Copilot action
  useCopilotAction({
    name: "Select an employee",
    description: "Select an employee from the list",
    parameters: [
      {
        name: "employeeId",
        type: "string",
        description: "The ID of the employee to select",
        required: true,
      }
    ],
    handler: async ({ employeeId }) => selectEmployee(employeeId),
  });

  return (
    <>...</>
  );
}

You can check their documentation for more information.

Star the Copilotkit repository ⭐

6. D3 - Bring data to life with SVG, Canvas and HTML

There are no better alternatives to D3 when creating visualizations in JavaScript. D3 is a free, open-source JavaScript library for visualizing data. Its low-level approach built on web standards offers unparalleled flexibility in authoring dynamic, data-driven graphics.

Popular visualization frameworks like Plotly use D3 to draw interactive plots and charts.

D3 works in any JavaScript environment.

Quickly get started by installing D3.

npm install d3

Here’s an example of a line chart in React.

import * as d3 from "d3";

export default function LinePlot({
  data,
  width = 640,
  height = 400,
  marginTop = 20,
  marginRight = 20,
  marginBottom = 20,
  marginLeft = 20
}) {
  const x = d3.scaleLinear([0, data.length - 1], [marginLeft, width - marginRight]);
  const y = d3.scaleLinear(d3.extent(data), [height - marginBottom, marginTop]);
  const line = d3.line((d, i) => x(i), y);
  return (
    <svg width={width} height={height}>
      <path fill="none" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth="1.5" d={line(data)} />
      <g fill="white" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth="1.5">
        {data.map((d, i) => (<circle key={i} cx={x(i)} cy={y(d)} r="2.5" />))}
      </g>
    </svg>
  );
}

Check out all the examples of plots and graphs built using D3.

Explore the D3 repository ⭐

7. Biome - Toolchain for the web

Biome is a fast and efficient web development tool focusing on code quality. It offers linting, formatting, and compiling features in a single tool.

It is designed to provide better performance, lower resource usage, and an improved developer experience compared to ESLlint and Prettier.

Get started with Biome by installing it using any package manager.

npm install --save-dev --save-exact @biomejs/biome

Configure Biome,

npx @biomejs/biome init

After running the init command, you’ll have a new biome.json file in your directory:

biome.json

{
  "$schema": "https://biomejs.dev/schemas/1.9.3/schema.json",
  "vcs": {
    "enabled": false,
    "clientKind": "git",
    "useIgnoreFile": false
  },
  "files": { "ignoreUnknown": false, "ignore": [] },
  "formatter": { "enabled": true, "indentStyle": "tab" },
  "organizeImports": { "enabled": true },
  "linter": {
    "enabled": true,
    "rules": { "recommended": true }
  },
  "javascript": { "formatter": { "quoteStyle": "double" } }
}

The linter.enabled: true enables the linter, and rules.recommended: true enables the recommended regulations. These correspond to the default settings.

Check out the documentation for more.

Explore the Biome repository ⭐

8. Continue - Leading AI-powered code assistant

You must have heard about Cursor IDE, the popular AI-powered IDE; Continue is similar to it but open source under Apache license.

It is highly customizable and lets you add any language model for auto-completion or chat. This can immensely improve your productivity. You can add Continue to VScode and JetBrains.

Key features

Chat to understand and iterate on code in the sidebar
Autocomplete to receive inline code suggestions as you type
Edit to modify code without leaving your current file
Actions to establish shortcuts for everyday use cases

For more, check the documentation.

Star the Continue repository ⭐

9. Godot Engine - Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine

Gaming is a big market, and as per multiple surveys, the average gaming time has increased manifold in the past ten years. Godot can be a great start if you are considering game development.

It is a feature-packed, multi-platform game engine for building 2D and 3D games from a unified interface.

Games built with Godot can easily be exported to the Web, MacOS, Linux, Windows, Android, IOS, and consoles. With game engines, you can also build compute-intensive apps like photo editors, animation, etc.

Key Features

It includes tools for developing virtual and augmented reality applications.
It is efficient and lightweight, making it suitable for indie and small-scale projects.
Access to a growing library of free community assets.
Cross-platform.

For more, refer to their official documentation.