Editorial illustration for Raycast unveils Glaze, an all‑in‑one platform for building and sharing apps
Raycast Glaze: No-Code App Builder for Everyone
Raycast unveils Glaze, an all‑in‑one platform for building and sharing apps
Building software has always required a specific priesthood. You either joined it or you didn't. Raycast's Glaze platform is an attempt to disband the priesthood entirely.
It offers a single prompt and the claim that you can build a real, working app from it. No servers to configure, no design systems to learn. The company is betting that the best tool is the one you never have to open.
You can use Glaze to build whatever you want, or browse the directory of apps made and shared by others. Or, better yet, Mann says, grab someone else's app and then tweak it to your exact liking. The Glaze process is even more straightforward than most vibe coding tools: you just type a prompt, and the tool tries to create an app in one go.
Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex are the platform's primary underlying models, so the build process might feel familiar to existing vibe coders -- some upfront questions and a few checks along the way -- but so far in my testing, I've found that Glaze tries extra hard to finish the job the first time. Mann confirms this is the goal: "We want to make sure you can just prompt anything you want," he says. "If you have to dive into the code, we basically did something wrong." Glaze is meant to take care of things like cloud storage, to follow basic tenets of good design, and to manage any necessary APIs and integrations.
These are features most users take for granted in software, but require real knowledge and effort to build, even in Claude Code.
The goal is explicit. CEO Thomas Mann says if you ever have to look at the underlying code, the platform has failed. This is not an incremental improvement for developers.
It is an elimination of the developer's traditional role for a certain class of simple, functional apps. The heavy lifting is done by Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex. Glaze itself handles the boring, essential glue that kills side projects: storage, APIs, basic UI coherence.
Most new AI tools are just polished demos. Glaze works. You ask for something, like a meeting note summarizer or a habit tracker, and you get a real thing you can use and share.
It is rarely beautiful or complex. But it exists. This changes the fundamental obstacle to making software.
The barrier was never having an idea. It was the million steps between the idea and a working prototype. Glaze reduces those steps to one.
Raycast's real play is the directory. Every app built becomes a component others can find and modify. The value isn't just in creation, but in recombination.
This turns a building tool into a network. If it catches on, the infrastructure of software—the servers, the endpoints, the design rules—truly disappears. You are left with just the prompt and the result.
That is the point. Everything else is a distraction they are trying to delete.
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Common Questions Answered
How does Raycast's Glaze platform enable non-technical users to build apps?
Glaze uses a prompt-driven builder powered by Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, allowing users to create apps by simply typing a description or prompt. The platform provides a single-pane workspace with templates and a community catalog, making app development more accessible to those without traditional coding skills.
What unique features does Glaze offer for app development and sharing?
Glaze provides a searchable directory of community-contributed projects that users can browse, copy, and customize to their specific needs. The platform allows developers and non-technical users to modify existing apps or create entirely new applications through AI-powered prompts, blurring the line between coding and no-code development.
What challenges might users face when using Raycast's Glaze platform?
Despite Glaze's user-friendly approach, users may still need to understand terminal commands, deployment steps, and app maintenance processes. While the platform aims to simplify app creation, it requires some technical knowledge to fully leverage its capabilities and successfully deploy the generated applications.
Further Reading
- Papers with Code - Latest NLP Research — Papers with Code
- Hugging Face Daily Papers — Hugging Face
- ArXiv CS.CL (Computation and Language) — ArXiv
