Vendo lets users build their own features
Covered by Signal Brief for B2B SaaS product managers — one of 5 tools in Issue #10 · vendo.run
What it does
Vendo (YC S26), which launched on Hacker News today, is an open-source customization layer that lets your users build their own features on top of your B2B SaaS product. One command reads your API surface, theme, components, and permission rules; after that, users describe what they need in plain English and Vendo builds it live inside your app — custom views and dashboards in your own design system, scheduled automations that take real actions, and micro-apps that reach hundreds of external tools. The guardrails do the heavy lifting: generated code runs in a QuickJS sandbox with no DOM, network, or clock access; every save is compiled, type-checked, and run against real API responses before a user sees it; and the agent acts only as the signed-in user, with exactly the access that user already has, so your source code is never touched. What users build is durable — real apps they keep, pin, share, fork, and run on triggers — not throwaway chat UI. Vendo plugs into an agent you already have or ships a production-ready one, and can expose your product over MCP so Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor act as the signed-in user. The core is Apache-2.0 and self-hostable; the paid cloud adds sharing, publishing, and org-level overlays.
Why it matters for PMs
Every B2B SaaS roadmap carries the same structural debt: bespoke requests from your most important customers — the one-off report, the extra field, the niche workflow — too small to prioritize, too costly to keep refusing. Vendo’s thesis is that you stop building the last mile and let customers assemble it on your API, inside your guardrails. That reframes the PM job: what you roadmap becomes the API surface, design system, and permission model you expose, not every request you absorb. The governance pattern is worth stealing even if you build your own version: the agent acts as the signed-in user, so there is no privilege escalation; execution is sandboxed; output renders in your brand; and external actions carry approval gates. And watch the competitive frame: as assistants gain the ability to render app UI inside their own canvases, the fight is over where customization lives — inside your product, where context and permissions are yours, or in someone else’s. One caution: when a user-built app breaks, it is still your product in the customer’s eyes.
The link Signal Brief published for this tool in Issue #10.
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