The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2025–2026
Anycrap bets AI-generated fake stores are the product: HN #1, 1,184 pts
A joke storefront where typing any wish instantly generates a fictional product page hit #1 on Hacker News, then became an API with 35,000+ products.
Anycrap
What the business is
Anycrap is an absurdist AI-powered storefront that turns any search term into a fictional product page — name, description, AI-generated image and category — so users can 'shop' for products that don't exist.
How it started
Solo developer kafked built a fake store that generates a product page for anything typed into its search box, launching it as a Show HN on September 13, 2025.
What happened
The post hit #1 on Hacker News with 1,184 points and 333 comments; users generated and shared absurd products in the thread and the developer burned through API tokens, asking for donations. Thread commenters also flagged that auto-generated content could be offensive, prompting moderation calls. In May 2026 the developer productized the catalog into a REST API (35,000+ products, 23 categories), an npx CLI, a faker.js plugin and a Hugging Face dataset.
How it ended up
Still live as of 2026-09; the joke store has become developer tooling — an API, CLI and faker.js plugin for generating absurdist placeholder products.
Background
Anycrap is an absurdist AI storefront: type anything you wish existed into its search box and it instantly generates a fictional product page — name, description, AI-generated image and category — so users can 'shop' the multiverse for products that don't exist. The joke is that every page is immediately believable.
Solo developer kafked launched it as a Show HN on September 13, 2025; the post hit #1 on Hacker News with 1,184 points and 333 comments, users generated and shared absurd products in the thread, and the developer burned through API tokens and asked for donations. Gigazine covered it two days later.
In May 2026 the developer turned the joke into developer tooling: a REST API with 35,000+ products across 23 categories, an npx CLI, a faker.js plugin and a Hugging Face dataset — so the generated catalog became reusable placeholder data for other builders.
What has to be true
- The core loop is instant and self-rewarding: type a wish, get a believable page — no account, no learning curve, no download, so sharing was effortless.
- It inverted e-commerce: instead of searching for an existing product, the store manufactures the product you describe, which made every search feel like a discovery.
- The HN launch created the content: users competed to invent absurd products in comments, which kept the thread alive at #1 with 333 comments.
- The same generated catalog later became a reusable asset — API, CLI and faker.js plugin — turning a viral joke into a small developer tool business.
What can be applied
A joke can be a wedge: the instant, absurd payoff spread it without marketing, and the same generated catalog became a reusable asset — API, CLI, test data.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Anycrap is still live as a joke storefront, and the developer has productized the catalog into developer tooling: a free-key REST API serving 35,000+ products across 23 categories (60 req/min, CORS, OpenAPI docs), an npx CLI ('npx anycrap random'), a faker.js plugin that works offline, and a Hugging Face dataset of all 35k rows. The project had no reported funding; it monetized through donations during the launch spike and later through the API.
Sources
- Show HN: A store that generates products from anything you type in search
- 'Anycrap' is a service that automatically creates fictitious products based on the search results you have made
- I turned a joke product generator into a real API (and a CLI, and a faker.js plugin)
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