AI App Building Just Changed Forever: Meet the Lovable & Cursor Killer with Screen-Recording Pair Programming

The AI Development Landscape Undergoes a Major Shift

The ecosystem of AI-powered application development, already characterized by rapid evolution, just experienced a seismic shift. As reported by @svpino on Feb 10, 2026 · 8:10 PM UTC, a formidable new contender has emerged, threatening to redefine the benchmarks set by existing leaders like Lovable and Cursor. This new platform, branded as orchids.app, is positioning itself not merely as an incremental improvement but as a fundamentally flexible, full-stack AI development environment designed from the ground up to maximize developer agency and minimize restrictive boundaries.

Orchids enters the arena promising an experience where the AI acts as a deeply integrated, context-aware collaborator rather than a simple code-generation tool. By emphasizing openness and user control over the underlying infrastructure—from computational models to deployment pipelines—it suggests a future where the developer remains firmly in the driver’s seat, empowered by sophisticated AI assistance, fundamentally altering the calculus for modern software creation.

Core Capabilities: Unlimited Flexibility and Stack Agnosticism

The core value proposition of orchids.app rests on a foundation of radical flexibility that few contemporary tools dare to offer. The platform is engineered for maximal creative scope, aiming to democratize complex application building across diverse form factors.

Universal Application Building

Orchids claims the capacity to architect virtually any type of application imaginable. This ambition spans the spectrum from standard web applications and complex mobile builds to specialized necessities like custom Chrome extensions, sophisticated automated Slack bots, and autonomous AI agents designed to perform multi-step tasks. This breadth suggests that developers no longer need to switch tools based on the desired output channel or complexity profile.

Stack Independence

Perhaps the most disruptive aspect of the platform’s core offering is its declared stack agnosticism. Orchids is not tethered to a specific JavaScript framework, backend language, or database structure. Developers are empowered to construct applications using any technology stack they prefer or are already familiar with. This freedom directly addresses a major pain point in AI-assisted development: ensuring the generated output seamlessly integrates into existing enterprise standards or preferred development methodologies.

Bring Your Own Model (BYOM)

To ensure both cost control and access to cutting-edge capabilities, Orchids champions a BYOM strategy. Users supply their own API keys for preferred Large Language Models (LLMs). This architecture ensures that developers benefit from the latest advancements in AI capabilities—whether it’s a specialized multimodal model or a highly optimized, proprietary service—while maintaining full transparency and control over the variable costs associated with token usage.

Revolutionary Interaction: Screen-Recording Pair Programming

The interface through which development occurs is arguably where Orchids seeks its most significant breakthrough in developer experience, moving beyond text prompts toward immersive, sensory collaboration.

The "Record and Listen" Feature

The standout innovation is the "Record and Listen" feature. This capability allows the AI assistant to actively monitor the user’s screen activity while simultaneously listening to verbal commands or explanations. Imagine describing a bug fix while pointing to the failing element on screen, and the AI understanding the context instantly. This moves the collaboration dynamic closer to observing a senior developer actively working alongside you.

Intuitive Collaboration

This environment fosters a level of intuition usually reserved for human interaction. By processing visual cues, mouse movements, and vocal intent simultaneously, the AI simulates a highly effective pair programming session. This shifts the burden from translating visual requirements into abstract text prompts to a more natural, spoken dialogue about the current state of the interface, drastically reducing the mental overhead required for iterative design changes.

Code and Interface Control Redefined

The integration of visual monitoring translates directly into revolutionary control over the application's User Interface (UI), circumventing traditional development workflows.

Direct UI Manipulation

Users are afforded the remarkable ability to interact directly with visual elements displayed on the screen to articulate required changes. A developer can simply click a button, a form field, or a layout element and verbally command, "Make this border blue and increase the padding by four pixels." This eliminates the tedious process of locating the corresponding CSS selectors or HTML tags buried deep within source code files just to make minor visual adjustments.

Enhanced Developer Efficiency

This direct manipulation capability promises a monumental leap in front-end development efficiency. Iterative design cycles, which often involve constant context-switching between the running application, the IDE, and the documentation, can now be condensed into rapid, on-screen dialogue. For designers and developers collaborating on UIs, this feature could prove to be an unparalleled productivity multiplier.

Ecosystem Integration and Financial Transparency

A powerful AI tool is only as good as its ability to connect with the existing operational infrastructure of modern software projects. Orchids addresses this by focusing on seamless integration and honest pricing.

Seamless Integrations

The platform explicitly highlights native support for critical backend and business services that form the backbone of countless modern applications. Specifically mentioned are Supabase, offering integrated database and authentication services, and Stripe, the leading payment processor. This suggests a deep understanding of the contemporary "startup stack."

Data Flexibility

Beyond the popular integrations, the platform stresses its capability to interface with any external database or third-party API, ensuring that even highly bespoke or legacy systems are not excluded from the AI-assisted development cycle. The promise here is adaptability, not limitation.

Transparent Pricing Model

In a market where the cost of AI compute can obscure overall project expenses, Orchids commits to a transparent financial structure. Their model is strictly "pay what you use," meaning the platform itself levies no markups on the API costs incurred from the underlying LLMs chosen by the user. Developers see the direct cost of their AI usage, fostering trust and predictable budgeting.

Commitment to Openness and Portability

Understanding that vendor lock-in is the perennial fear in adopting new tooling, Orchids appears to be making explicit guarantees about developer ownership and future portability. The platform features robust mechanisms allowing users to import projects seamlessly from other environments and, critically, export projects to alternative platforms. This commitment to platform independence ensures that adopting Orchids remains a strategic augmentation of development capability rather than a commitment to a closed-off future.

Conclusion: A Compelling New Tool for Builders

Orchids.app, as unveiled via @svpino's announcement, represents a critical inflection point in the evolution of AI-assisted development tools. By aggressively marrying deep contextual awareness (via screen recording) with radical stack flexibility, stack agnosticism, and transparent economics, it presents a compelling alternative to established patterns. The question for every builder now becomes: Can the immersive collaboration offered by screen-recording pair programming genuinely accelerate feature delivery and simplify complexity to the degree promised? This platform demands thorough investigation by any team serious about leveraging AI to build robust, modern applications across any stack.

Source: Original Post by @svpino on X: https://x.com/svpino/status/2021315810715893870