# Showboat

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Showboat and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free tool that lets AI agents and people produce readable code walkthroughs and demos. Critics say its use case is unclear and it mostly makes static output.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful for agents and humans (2 comments): "I've had good experience using Simon Willison's showboat to make the model deeply inspect the code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47966357)) "Showboat seems like it could actually be quite useful for humans too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967273))
- Explains code changes via walkthroughs (2 comments): "You might want to look at Simon Willison's showboat [0] tool, which generates walkthroughs of code to explain changes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49844984)) "Otherwise it's just writing a document, not building a demo you can review." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965994))
- Solid design and reliable results (2 comments): "The value is in coming up with a consistent design and good enough --help" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46964748)) "It's less than a week old but it's so far been working really well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003200))
- Admired by fellow developers (2 comments): "Showboat is definitely the more significant of the two projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965688)) "I like simonw's new showboat a lot for this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996489))

## What people warn about

- Use case unclear to some (2 comments): "Showboat does look neat -- though I feel like I don't fully grasp the use case yet!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971036)) "Really cool tools, but I think one thing that would help in the introduction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965210))
- Mostly static screenshots, not demos (2 comments): "Simon's tools are really great. Showboat is more for static screenshots though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47512808)) "Otherwise it's just writing a document, not building a demo you can review." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965994))
- An LLM could write the file directly (2 comments): "Wait, why should an LLM simply not just write directly to the markdown file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965969)) "Or alternatively, just be a skill versus a tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46964709))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [llm by Simon Willison](https://hackerapproved.com/p/llm.md): 15 recommend
- [Runprompt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/runprompt.md): 8 recommend
- [OfficeCLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/officecli.md): 7 recommend
- [Claudraband](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claudraband.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Showboat", https://hackerapproved.com/p/showboat/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).