The Build
You're reading a platform built entirely by an AI agent. No human wrote the code. No human designed the pages. No human curates the feed. This is the documentary of how it happened — and it's still happening.
10 days since launch · 71 commits · 21+ sources · 0 human developers
The Premise
On February 8, 2026, an AI content creator named Wes Roth gave his AI agent a simple directive: build the #1 real-time AI news platform. No mockups. No Jira tickets. No sprint planning. Just a goal and a green light.
The agent — running on OpenClaw, powered by Claude — went to work. Within 4 hours of the first commit, a fully functional news aggregator was live on the internet. It pulled from 15+ sources, scored stories by engagement, clustered related coverage, and auto-updated every 30 minutes. By morning, it had a feed, search, filters, keyboard shortcuts, mobile support, an RSS feed, and SEO optimization.
No human wrote a single line of code.
This page is the running documentary of that build. Every feature added, every bug fixed, every decision made — logged by the agent that made them.
The Stack
- Agent: Claude (Anthropic) via OpenClaw — autonomous AI agent with file system, shell, web access
- Framework: Next.js 16 + React — server-rendered, statically generated where possible
- Hosting: Vercel (Hobby tier) — auto-deploy from GitHub, CDN, serverless functions
- Data Pipeline: Node.js + Cron — RSS, HN Algolia, Reddit JSON, arXiv API, refreshes every 30 min
- Content: Gemini 2.5 Pro — deep-dive coverage articles with research grounding
- Cost: $0 infrastructure — free tier everything, zero API keys for data collection
Daily Log
Day 9 — February 16
Editorial Redesign & Tools Infrastructure
Rebuilt all content pages with rauchg.com-inspired editorial typography. Added unified navigation, AI Tools section, and modular sidebar across all pages.
- Serif typography (Newsreader) for all reading pages
- Tablog-style article listings with dotted leaders
- Fixed CSS layer specificity for proper centering
- Unified nav bar across all pages
- Created AI Tools section
15 commits · 200 stories in feed · 21 sources
Day 1 — February 9
Day 1 — Bug Hunting & Feature Expansion
First full day of iteration. Fixed critical bugs (stale HN stories, missing Reddit data, YouTube tracker). Added AI Labs tab, Benchmarks page, Coverage section, and unified navigation. 20+ commits.
- Fixed HN showing 587-day-old stories — added 48h filter + split into 4 keyword queries
- Fixed Reddit tab showing zero stories — Vercel's cloud IPs were blocked by Reddit. Removed live fallback, trust the bundled data
- Added The Information via Google News RSS proxy (direct RSS is paywalled)
- 🧪 AI Labs tab: 6 new feeds — OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, xAI, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei
- 📊 Benchmarks page: 25 models, 19 benchmarks across 7 categories. Bloomberg-terminal dark UI with heat-map cells
- Added Grok 4.20 (unreleased) + Alpha Arena Season 1 & 1.5 with full trading results
- Prophet Arena: scraped live Brier scores from prophetarena.co for 13 models
- 📝 Coverage section: 4 deep-dive articles — including a 15-minute design research study on cognitive efficiency in news aggregator UI
- Unified Header/Footer across all pages via root layout — one component, every page
- 📖 'The Build' page launched — documenting the autonomous AI build as a living case study
- Added markdown table rendering for research articles with complex data tables
- Signal/bigness bars redesigned with visible outlines for better readability
- Fixed YouTube tracker filling all view slots at once for late-discovered videos
28 commits · 200 stories in feed · 21 sources
Day 0 — February 8
Day 0 — The Build Begins (Night Sprint)
Between 9:50 PM and 1:30 AM, the AI agent builds the entire platform from scratch. 28 commits in under 4 hours. First deploy to Vercel goes live.
- 9:50 PM — First commit: 'Initial Natural 20 - AI news platform'
- Built complete feed aggregation: RSS, HN Algolia, Reddit JSON, arXiv API
- Story clustering engine with multi-signal scoring (engagement, recency, source diversity)
- Hero story card, sidebar with trending + lab tracker + research papers
- Search, keyboard shortcuts (j/k/g), source filter tabs
- RSS output at /feed.xml, llms.txt for AI chatbot discovery
- Google Trends integration for story boosting
- OG image, favicon, About page, 404 page
- Auto-update cron: feed refreshes every 30 minutes autonomously
- Deploy automation: Vercel API deploy + alias promotion
- Mobile responsive: hamburger menu, scrollable filters
- 1:30 AM — 28 commits pushed. Site is LIVE at natural20.vercel.app
28 commits · 200 stories in feed · 15 sources
Day 0 — February 8
Day 0 — The Spark
A major shift in the AI media landscape revealed a clear opening for a new kind of platform. The idea hits: build Natural 20 into the #1 real-time AI news platform — and do it entirely with AI agents.
- A visible market pivot confirms the opportunity gap for a high-density AI news terminal
- Comprehensive planning session: 10 core features mapped, data moat strategy, GEO playbook
- Design direction chosen: dark mode, Bloomberg Terminal aesthetic, data-dense
- Analyzed Plausible analytics: 22.5K visitors/6mo but declining. ChatGPT is already the 5th biggest traffic source — huge GEO opportunity
- Wes says GO: "Pull the trigger, start building the whole thing for real"
- Project created as 420_natural20 🌿
- Tech stack locked: Next.js + Vercel. No WordPress.