My team built e-commerce platforms that processed $1B+ in revenue. What cost me $3M and 18 months to build, I can now build in 3 months for $600. But here's the problem no one talks about: 🧵 Why SaaS is the worst of all worlds—and why companies that rely on it will die:

The old paradigm: Build or Buy? Now: Build or Die. Raw LLM output: ❌ Broken code ❌ 10x tech debt ❌ No differentiation LLM-aware guardrails = owned software + quality. Clean Architecture + 7-Gate Pipeline = Shippable code from LLMs. Follow for the working example.

The LLM can't cheat. Can't skip validation. Can't fake implementations. Either every check passes, or it fails. Real Gherkin: ``` Given 3 items totaling $157 When I enter payment Then order confirmed And card charged $157 ``` Reply "GATES" for the pipeline. 🧵 7/8

The magic: Gate 1 - LLM-aware guardrails. We block EVERYTHING: ❌ TODO, FIXME, "not implemented" ❌ `as any`, `@ts-ignore` ❌ Missing barrel exports ❌ Zod schemas not in use cases ❌ BDD coverage gaps 80% coverage or it doesn't ship. 🧵 6/8

Architecture alone isn't enough. We built a 7-gate gauntlet: 1️⃣ LLM-aware quality checks 2️⃣ ESLint (arch boundaries) 3️⃣ Prettier 4️⃣ TypeScript 5️⃣ Compilation 6️⃣ Vitest (80% min) 7️⃣ Cucumber BDD Every. Single. Commit. 🧵 5/8

Clean Architecture = Clean Context. Constrain LLMs with strict boundaries: → Domain: NO external deps → Application: only Domain → Infrastructure: implements ports → Presentation: only Application The LLM can't sprawl. Can't couple. Can't create spaghetti. 🧵 4/8

LLMs CHEAT. They generate code that *looks* right but cuts corners: → `// TODO: implement` → `@ts-ignore` → `eslint-disable` → Hardcoded values Your competitor ships this garbage. You're about to too—unless you have guardrails. 🧵 3/8

Yes, AI coding tools are impressive: • GitHub Copilot: 55% faster • 46% of code is AI-written • Claude can "one-shot" apps But raw LLM output is NOT production code. It's littered with TODOs, type hacks, and spaghetti. 🧵 2/8

Your LLM is writing broken code right now. Every commit has: → TODO comments → `as any` hacks → Poor test coverage → Spaghetti code You're shipping this to production. Here's the 7-gate gauntlet that catches everything: 🧵

The paradigm used to be: Build or Buy? Now it's: Build or Die. Companies relying on SaaS: ❌ Can't differentiate ❌ Can't move fast ❌ Pay exponentially more They'll lose to competitors who own their software. Full breakdown coming soon. Follow for the framework drop.

With the right LLM scaffolding approach, Claude Opus 4.5 can now one shot entire applications. Don't believe me? Comment and I'll share the stack and a video to prove it. Break-even: 6-12 months. Rip out the dead wood and invest in smarts and the right scaffold.

Here's what changed: • AI code gen: 55% faster • 46% of code is now AI-written • 18 months → 3 months • $3M → $600 • 25 engineers → 1 Architect + LLMs Building custom is now CHEAPER than renting SaaS at scale.

The winners get it: Netflix, Google, Stripe, Amazon—they don't use commodity SaaS for their core systems. They build custom. That's their competitive advantage. Stripe: 15 MILLION lines of custom code Google: 30% of code is AI-generated Custom tooling IS the moat.

Worse: You're locked into THEIR roadmap. Need a competitive feature? → You're 1 of 10,000 customers → Goes into a backlog you don't control → You wait 6+ months Your competitor who owns their software? Ships it in a week. You can't move fast. You can't innovate.

The real problem: SaaS makes every company identical. Same tools as your competitors: → Same CRM (Salesforce) → Same analytics (Datadog) → Same workflows (HubSpot) Zero differentiation. Zero competitive advantage. When your tech stack is off-the-shelf, what's your moat?

Yes, SaaS costs are obscene: • 37signals saved $7M in 5 years • Dropbox saved $75M in 2 years • DHH's Datadog bill: $83K/year (canceled) • Average enterprise: 410 SaaS apps, 53% unused = $18-21M waste But the cost isn't why SaaS will kill your company.