Former GitHub CEO builds a new code host for the vibe-coding era

Tom Preston-Werner — the original GitHub co-founder who sold the company to Microsoft for $7.5B in 2018 — has launched a new platform called Registerspills. It's a code host designed specifically for the age of vibe coding, where AI does most of the heavy lifting and human developers spend more time reviewing and directing than typing.

The Register's article frames it as a competitor to GitHub itself, but the real story is the timing: GitHub was built for humans writing code by hand, with pull requests, commits, and branching as the primary metaphors. Registerspills is built for humans directing code that AI writes — the metadata is different, the workflows are different, and the UI is different. Tom's been thinking about this for years; he's been vocal about how GitHub has drifted away from its original design. This is the correction he's been waiting for.

The product is still early — it launched last week — so the details are thin. But the thesis is sharp: if AI writes more code than humans, the tools we use to manage that code need to change. The Register got the basics right. The Register is a solid source for this kind of story — they cover the tech without the usual Silicon Valley breathlessness.

Why this matters for us: the tools we use to write and ship code are about to shift again, and the people who built the old tools are the ones building the new ones — so the next wave isn't just another startup, it's a real correction from people who've been in the trenches.