Malleable software = solid bases and custom code

The article argues that AI-driven “malleable software” should combine a solid base—providing hosting, authentication, relational storage, concurrent editing, notifications, history, and permissions—with custom code to handle the remaining 20% of specialized needs. It evaluates four approaches (scratch coding, vibe-code generators, low-code builders, and flexible assemblers) and concludes that only solutions that evolve toward a “solid base + custom code” model can scale for collaborative, domain-specific applications.