Sembli

The problem was never a lack of tools

The number of AI tools keeps growing, but using them across a single piece of work stays fragmented. Every tool is its own tab, subscription, and prompt. Deciding what to use, when, and how to combine it is left entirely to the user. They have to research the product, compare the pricing, guess at what pairs with what, and rebuild the process from scratch each time.

It lands hardest on designers and students, freelancers and creators, early-stage founders, and non-technical people. They want to build with AI without becoming full-time tool researchers to do it.

Sembli began as open-ended exploration around AI, creativity, and where product experiences are heading. I mapped a wide range of directions. One pattern kept resurfacing on my ideation boards: people were surrounded by tools but had no system for deciding what to use, when, and how to combine them. That observation became the project.

To pressure-test the idea, I wrote a product requirements doc covering the problem, audience, and core experience. It forced a fuzzy concept into three clear priorities: assemble, compare, and save workflows.

From "which tool?" to "what process am I building?"

The reframe is the whole product. Instead of optimizing "What tool should I use?", Sembli helps you answer "What process am I trying to build?" From there it works as a lightweight workflow builder: start from a goal, get a suggested stack or browse a prebuilt assembly, compare on price and fit, and save the workflow to reuse.

The heart is the prompt-to-stack flow: describe what you're making, set preferences like budget, and get back a workflow organized by task stage, such as research, copy, editing, and distribution. I built that generation with the OpenAI and Gemini APIs wired directly into the product, so the stack is assembled for you, not just browsed. I didn't only design this part. I developed it.

I prototyped several directions before committing: tool marketplaces, workflow cards, standalone stack builders, saved libraries, and isolated pricing tools. Each did one thing well and broke on the rest. A marketplace helped you find tools but left you to assemble them. A builder assumed you already knew what you wanted. The version that worked combined both, pairing the discoverability of a directory with the guidance of a workflow builder.

I structured Sembli into four areas: Home, Discover, Assemblies, and Saved. Together they hold the full arc: find a tool, build a repeatable system, and return to a saved workflow when the task comes back.

The Stack Builder is the product idea, made usable

The Stack Builder is the clearest expression of the concept. Tools are grouped into workflow stages, and you can compare, swap, and reshape any part of the stack. It's the moment a pile of tools becomes a process you can run again.

Cost drives most real tool decisions, but it's usually buried across separate pricing pages and subscriptions. I pulled budget into the workflow itself, through pricing filters, a running cost summary, and side-by-side comparisons. You choose on function and spend at the same time, before committing to anything.

Brand identity

The identity grew straight from the product idea of assembling scattered pieces into something useful. A playful mascot, bright accent graphics, and a name that suggests combining and building give Sembli personality without burying the clarity of the system underneath.

Discovery and a workflow builder, in one product

The final experience combines goal-led discovery, tool exploration, prebuilt assemblies, the Stack Builder, and saved workflows. It treats AI tools as parts of a larger process, not a list to pick from.

The constant tension was guidance versus freedom. Too much structure and it becomes a rigid template. Too little and it's just another directory. So I put the intelligence into the assembly itself: a goal goes in, an organized stack comes out, and everything stays swappable. Building that generation on the OpenAI and Gemini APIs is what made the guidance real, not just a static list.

A shipped product, with the AI built in

Sembli is live at sembli.us. It catalogs 250 AI tools. It ships 70 prebuilt, vetted workflows, so no one starts from a blank page. And it runs goal-to-stack generation through the OpenAI and Gemini APIs. It's a working product, not a prototype. It's also the project where I designed and built the whole thing myself.

Takeaways