Building Applications Without Thinking About Infrastructure
What happens when AI can discover and orchestrate cloud services on its own? A real-world example of building a complete media conversion platform through conversation alone.
The real bottleneck in software development is not writing code. It is the translation layer between ideas and implementation — the mental overhead of configuring services, writing infrastructure code, and connecting disparate systems. What if that gap could collapse into a simple conversation?
What Was Built
Open Media Convert is a complete media conversion platform featuring video transcoding, VOD packaging, cloud storage, and AI-powered encoding profiles — all through a web interface. Users connect their own OSC accounts through OAuth, meaning the application manages real infrastructure under their subscriptions. This is not a demo. It orchestrates real open source services: SVT Encore for transcoding, Shaka Packager for DASH/HLS packaging, and MinIO for S3-compatible storage.
How It Works: MCP and Service Discovery
The key innovation is connecting Claude directly to Eyevinn Open Source Cloud through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Claude can query available services, their APIs, and configuration schemas automatically. There was no need to explain what SVT Encore was or how to configure it — Claude discovered that information by querying the service catalog. Instead of writing infrastructure code, the entire application was built through conversation. Describe what you want, and Claude figures out which services to use and how to wire them together.
Building Becomes Describing
When AI reasoning combines with discoverable services, the development process transforms. You describe the application you want — its features, its workflows, its user experience — and the AI handles the translation to infrastructure. This is OSC as the engineering platform for the modern AI-powered builder. The friction between idea and implementation disappears. Building becomes describing.
Try It Yourself
Ready to build applications through conversation? Connect Claude Code or OpenAI Codex to OSC using the MCP protocol and start describing what you want to build.
Getting Started with Claude Code
Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI for agentic coding. Learn how to connect it to OSC and start building services through natural language.
Getting Started with Codex
OpenAI Codex CLI is another powerful option for AI-assisted development. This tutorial shows how to configure it with OSC using a Personal Access Token.
Read the Original Post
This article is based on a LinkedIn post that goes deeper into the experience of building without infrastructure. Read the full story for more details on the development process and lessons learned.