Glue Coding.md 12 KB
🧬 Glue Coding
The holy grail and silver bullet of software engineering – it's finally here.
🚀 Disruptive Manifesto
Glue Coding is not a technology, but a revolution.
It might perfectly solve the three fatal flaws of Vibe Coding:
| Pain Points of Traditional Vibe Coding | Glue Coding's Solution |
|---|---|
| 🎭 AI Hallucinations - Generating non-existent APIs, incorrect logic | ✅ Zero Hallucinations - Only using validated, mature code |
| 🧩 Complexity Explosion - The larger the project, the more out of control it becomes | ✅ Zero Complexity - Every module is a time-tested wheel |
| 🎓 High Barrier to Entry - Requires deep programming skills to master AI | ✅ Barrier Disappears - You only need to describe "how to connect" |
💡 Core Concept
Traditional Programming: Humans write code
Vibe Coding: AI writes code, humans review code
Glue Coding: AI connects code, humans review connections
Paradigm Shift
A fundamental shift from "generation" to "connection":
- ❌ No longer letting AI generate code from scratch (the source of hallucinations)
- ❌ No longer reinventing the wheel (the source of complexity)
❌ No longer requiring you to understand every line of code (the source of high barriers)
✅ Only reusing mature, production-validated open-source projects
✅ AI's sole responsibility: understanding your intent and connecting modules
✅ Your sole responsibility: clearly describing "what is the input, what is the desired output"
🏗️ Architectural Philosophy
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Your Business Needs │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AI Glue Layer │
│ │
│ "I understand what you want to do, let me connect these blocks" │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐
│ Mature Module A │ │ Mature Module B │ │ Mature Module C │
│ (100K+ ⭐) │ │ (Production Validated) │ │ (Official SDK) │
└─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
Entity: Mature open-source projects, official SDKs, time-tested libraries Link: AI-generated glue code, responsible for data flow and interface adaptation Function: Your described business objective
🎯 Why is this the Silver Bullet?
1. Hallucination Problem → Completely Disappears
AI no longer needs to "invent" anything. It only needs to:
- Read Module A's documentation
- Read Module B's documentation
- Write the data transformation from A to B
This is what AI excels at, and what is least prone to errors.
2. Complexity Problem → Transferred to the Community
Behind each module are:
- Thousands of Issue discussions
- Hundreds of contributors' wisdom
- Years of production environment refinement
You are not managing complexity, you are standing on the shoulders of giants.
3. Barrier to Entry Problem → Reduced to a Minimum
You don't need to understand:
- Underlying implementation principles
- Best practice details
- Edge case handling
You just need to speak human language:
"I want to process Telegram messages with GPT and save them to PostgreSQL"
AI will help you find the most suitable wheels and then glue them together.
📋 Practical Workflow
1. Clarify Goal
└─→ "I want to implement XXX function"
2. Find Wheels
└─→ "Are there any mature libraries/projects that have done something similar?"
└─→ Let AI help you search, evaluate, and recommend
3. Understand Interfaces
└─→ Feed the official documentation to AI
└─→ AI summarizes: what is the input, what is the output
4. Describe Connection
└─→ "The output of A should become the input of B"
└─→ AI generates glue code
5. Verify Run
└─→ Runs successfully → Done
└─→ Error → Give the error to AI, continue gluing
🔥 Classic Case Study
Case: Polymarket Data Analysis Bot
Requirement: Real-time acquisition of Polymarket data, analysis, and pushing to Telegram
Traditional Approach: Write a crawler from scratch, write analysis logic, write a Bot → 3000 lines of code, 2 weeks
Glue Approach:
Wheel 1: polymarket-py (Official SDK)
Wheel 2: pandas (Data Analysis)
Wheel 3: python-telegram-bot (Message Push)
Glue Code: 50 lines
Development Time: 2 hours
📚 Further Reading
- 语言层要素 - 8 Levels of Understanding 100% Code
- 胶水开发提示词
- 项目实战：polymarket-dev
🎖️ Summary
If you can copy, don't write; if you can connect, don't build; if you can reuse, don't originate.
Glue Coding is the ultimate evolution of Vibe Coding.
It's not laziness, but the highest manifestation of engineering wisdom –
Using the least amount of original code to leverage the greatest productivity.
This is the silver bullet software engineering has been waiting for for 50 years.
"The best code is no code at all. The second best is glue code."
Glue Coding Methodology
1. Definition of Glue Coding
Glue coding is a new software construction method, whose core idea is:
Almost entirely reusing mature open-source components, combining them into a complete system with a minimal amount of "glue code".
It emphasizes "connection" rather than "creation", especially efficient in the AI era.
2. Background
Traditional software engineering often requires developers to:
- Design architecture
- Write logic themselves
- Manually handle various details
- Reinvent the wheel
This leads to high development costs, long cycles, and low success rates.
However, the current ecosystem has fundamentally changed:
- Thousands of mature open-source libraries on GitHub
- Frameworks covering various scenarios (Web, AI, Distributed, Model Inference...)
- GPT / Grok can help search, analyze, and combine these projects
In this environment, writing code from scratch is no longer the most efficient way.
Thus, "glue coding" has emerged as a new paradigm.
3. Core Principles of Glue Coding
3.1 Don't write what can be avoided, write as little as possible
Any functionality with a mature existing implementation should not be reinvented.
3.2 Copy-paste whenever possible
Directly copying and using community-validated code is a normal engineering process, not laziness.
3.3 Stand on the shoulders of giants, don't try to be a giant
Utilize existing frameworks instead of trying to write a "better wheel" yourself.
3.4 Do not modify original repository code
All open-source libraries should ideally remain immutable, used as black boxes.
3.5 The less custom code, the better
Your written code only serves to:
- Combine
- Call
- Encapsulate
- Adapt
Which is the so-called glue layer.
4. Standard Workflow of Glue Coding
4.1 Clarify Requirements
Break down the system's functionality into individual requirements.
4.2 Use GPT/Grok to Deconstruct Requirements
Let AI refine requirements into reusable modules, capabilities, and corresponding subtasks.
4.3 Search for Existing Open-Source Implementations
Leverage GPT's internet capabilities (e.g., Grok):
- Search for corresponding GitHub repositories for each sub-requirement.
- Check for reusable components.
- Compare quality, implementation methods, licenses, etc.
🔍 Using GitHub Topics to Find the Right Wheels
Method: Ask AI to find the GitHub Topic for your requirement, then browse popular repos under that topic.
Example Prompt:
I need to implement [your requirement], please help me:
1. Analyze what technical areas this requirement might involve
2. Recommend corresponding GitHub Topics keywords
3. Provide GitHub Topics links (format: https://github.com/topics/xxx)
Common Topics Examples: | Requirement | Recommended Topic | |:---|:---| | Telegram Bot | telegram-bot | | Data Analysis | data-analysis | | AI Agent | ai-agent | | CLI Tool | cli | | Web Scraping | web-scraping |
Advanced Tips:
- GitHub Topics Homepage - Browse all topics
- GitHub Trending - Discover hot new projects
- Combine multiple Topics:
https://github.com/topics/python?q=telegram
4.4 Download and Organize Repositories
Pull the selected repositories locally and organize them by category.
4.5 Organize According to Architectural System
Place these repositories into the project structure, for example:
/services
/libs
/third_party
/glue
And emphasize: Open-source repositories are third-party dependencies and must never be modified.
4.6 Write Glue Layer Code
The role of glue code includes:
- Encapsulating interfaces
- Unifying input/output
- Connecting different components
- Implementing minimal business logic
The final system is composed of multiple mature modules.
5. Value of Glue Coding
5.1 Extremely High Success Rate
Because it uses community-validated mature code.
5.2 Extremely Fast Development Speed
A large amount of functionality can be directly reused.
5.3 Reduced Costs
Time cost, maintenance cost, and learning cost are all significantly reduced.
5.4 More Stable System
Relies on mature frameworks rather than individual implementations.
5.5 Easy to Extend
Capabilities can be easily upgraded by replacing components.
5.6 Strong Synergy with AI
GPT can assist in searching, deconstructing, and integrating, making it a natural enhancer for glue engineering.
6. Glue Coding vs. Traditional Development
| Project | Traditional Development | Glue Coding |
|---|---|---|
| Feature Implementation | Write yourself | Reuse open-source |
| Workload | Large | Much smaller |
| Success Rate | Uncertain | High |
| Speed | Slow | Extremely fast |
| Error Rate | Prone to pitfalls | Uses mature solutions |
| Focus | "Building wheels" | "Combining wheels" |
7. Typical Application Scenarios for Glue Coding
- Rapid prototype development
- Small teams building large systems
- AI application/model inference platforms
- Data processing pipelines
- Internal tool development
- System Integration
8. Future: Glue Engineering will become the new mainstream programming method
As AI capabilities continue to strengthen, future developers will no longer need to write a lot of code themselves, but rather:
- Find wheels
- Combine wheels
- Intelligently connect components
- Build complex systems at extremely low cost
Glue coding will become the new standard for software productivity.