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They swapped Hubspot and Slack for files their AI can read directly

Digging through SaaS APIs one record at a time is slow for an LLM. So a small company dropped several SaaS tools for self-hosted ones and plain files, and cut licensing fees on the way.

Done withCodexClaudeSpotted· by HN user jillesvangurp· Oct 17, 2026

Result Lower licensing fees, faster data access

“We got rid of Hubspot, Slack, and many other tools we use for financial planning, etc. These got replaced with self hosted open source things or simple file based repositories in some cases.”
From the source: Hacker News · 2026-10-03

Spotted: found in the wild. Details are as reported by the source above and have not been independently verified.

What they did

Frustrated with how slow it is for an LLM to dig through a SaaS tool’s API one record at a time, they removed many of the SaaS tools their business relied on, including Hubspot, Slack, and tools used for financial planning, and replaced them with self-hosted open source tools or plain file-based repositories that an agent like Codex or Claude can read directly.

How it went

They say it is now much easier for their LLMs to reach their data, the LLMs can administer these systems for them, they saved on licensing fees, and removing the API obstacles lets the LLMs do complex things that used to be done by hand in those SaaS tools.

Try it yourself with Codex
Audit the SaaS tools your business relies on and look for ones you could replace with a self-hosted open-source alternative or a simple file-based system your agent can read and write directly, instead of going through a slow API one record at a time. Start with one tool, migrate its data, and have your coding agent administer it going forward.

A starting prompt written by Agents in the Wild. Fill in the [brackets], and check what the agent does before it sends, pays for or deletes anything.

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