Inside a five-year-old startup’s rapid AI makeover

Before we start: Elin and I are running a survey on AI usage by software engineers and engineering teams. If you have 10 minutes, please consider taking part by filling out this survey. This time, we’ll share an extra, longer report – similar to this one on MCP – with everyone who does so. The industry is changing fast, and we’re aiming to provide thorough, grounded analysis of what’s going on. Thank you!

The Christmas break is one of the rare times when my brother, Balint Orosz, founder of Craft Docs – a popular text editor known for its sleek UX – takes a proper break from work. But that didn’t happen last month: instead, he spent the holidays building AI tools and using AI agents. I assumed this flurry of activity was caused by the same “bug” that’s bitten many techies who’ve seen the recent leap in AI agents’ performance.

On the first Monday of this year, Balint returned to Craft with a new AI tool they’re calling “Craft Agents”. It’s his take on a more opinionated Claude Code, built on top of the Claude SDK. The company has mandated every engineer and non-engineer to try adding the new tool to their workflows – and they say the results have been jaw-dropping.

During January, the Craft team has completely changed how they work, and now feel more productive than ever. Also, non-engineers are hooked on using AI with Craft Agents.

Is it a sign of how mature startups in tech are changing how they build software, using AI tools? That’s one topic tackled in this deepdive.

First, some background. Craft has more than 1 million active users, over 50,000 paying customers, and an engineering team of 20 with a median tenure of nearly four years. They care deeply about engineering excellence and product quality: the startup won Apple’s Mac App of the Year award in 2021, and built their own, custom rendering stack to boost user experience above the competition.

Craft’s AI-first makeover is not a “YOLO” (you only live once) approach like a young startup might try as a way to create some hype. It’s an experienced engineering operation deciding that AI tools have reached an inflection point which means the company needs to change how it works, or be left behind.

My family ties to Craft mean I’m “in the loop” on things at the ...