The archive · Content & Film · Product decision · 2018
nocode: Kelsey Hightower's 'write nothing' joke repo tops 65k GitHub stars
Kelsey Hightower's 'No Code' repo takes the claim literally and ships zero code — the joke earned 65.7k stars by 2026
Kelsey Hightower (GitHub: kelseyhightower)
What it had to solve
The GitHub repository 'No Code' opens by asserting that no code is the best way to write secure and reliable applications — 'write nothing; deploy nowhere.' The parody treats that promise as a specification: if code-free truly is safest, the ideal project should contain no code at all.
How it works
Kelsey Hightower's GitHub repository 'No Code' is a parody built from its own tagline: 'No code is the best way to write secure and reliable applications. Write nothing; deploy nowhere.' Published under the kelseyhightower account in February 2018, it treats that promise as a product specification — if code-free really is the safest way to build, the ideal application contains no code at all.
The README walks a developer through a software project's standard life cycle with every step deliberately left empty. Getting Started says to start by not writing any code and promises the example application can do anything you want; Building gives no command and shows no output ('Yep. That's it.'); Deploying ships the application 'absolutely nowhere'; scaling requires no action ('I know right?'); and Contributing answers 'You don't.' The repository stayed a joke in four commits.
The joke spread through the community it mocked. The Hacker News launch thread drew 155 points and 30 comments on 7 February 2018 — readers linked complementary 'tools' like vapor.js and no-bugs, the author's only reply was 'No comment,' and within five days comments clocked the repository past 1,000 stars, with 12,000 a couple of hours after that. It kept accumulating attention for years: the 2026 snapshot of the page shows 65.7k stars and 4.8k forks for a project whose entire content is an instruction to do nothing.
Why it lands
- Taking the promise literally makes the joke self-refuting on sight: a no-code application should have nothing to build, deploy or secure.
- The README ritual — get started, build, deploy, scale, contribute — is a format every developer knows, so each emptied step is a punchline that needs no setup.
- The whole gag fits on one screen, so it can be read, screenshotted and retold in seconds — the artifact matches how tech communities share.
- The author stayed in character after launch ('No comment.'), which kept the joke coherent as it spread beyond the original thread.
What it did
Posted to Hacker News on 7 February 2018, the repository drew 155 points and 30 comments; commenters noted it passed 1,000 stars within five days and hit 12,000 a couple of hours after that. The joke kept compounding — the 2026 page snapshot shows 65.7k stars, 4.8k forks and 367 watchers for a project whose entire content is an instruction to do nothing.
What you can take
Take a trend's core promise literally and play it inside the trend's own format: developers recognize the README ritual, so each emptied step lands, and a one-screen artifact shares itself.
Since then
The repository never grew into a product; it stayed a four-commit running joke, and its star count kept compounding for years — already past 1,000 five days after launch, the page showed 65.7k stars, 4.8k forks and 367 watchers when fetched in 2026. Its About line still reads 'The best way to write secure and reliable applications. Write nothing; deploy nowhere,' the punchline intact eight years on.
Sources
- kelseyhightower/nocode — The best way to write secure and reliable applications
- Nocode: The best way to write secure and reliable applications (Hacker News discussion)
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