Short version: Turbo Admin attempts to be as "vanilla" as possible with very few dependencies. This keeps security risk low, reducing the need for frequent updates and keeping the code simple. It's vanilla CSS and JavaScript, compiled with esbuild, with one bit of library code included for the fuzzy-search. The only npm dependency I pull in is Mozilla's webextension-polyfill which lets me use the same code across browsers.
Long version:
I have written about some of my philosophy for building with code. The idea that software can be "finished", and my manifesto for small, static web apps are two examples.
Turbo Admin very much fits this approach. Minimal dependencies; a simple build process to package up the JavaScript. I know what code I'm delivering to you.
The website clearly states "Turbo Admin should 'Just Work'" and "There's no subscription. You can keep ... the extension, and use it for as long as it works." Turbo Admin is in some senses "finished". It will keep working without update until some change in WordPress breaks it. I think that's pretty cool.
To achieve that I write vanilla JS and CSS. The JS is in modules, which I bundle with esbuild. I use a single piece of library code for the fuzzy search. This is also "finished" code that is very simple - it's just a search algorithm. I also include a single npm dependency from Mozilla that polyfills some browser extension behaviour.
That's it. That's the tech stack. 1 dependency. Extremely low risk. Almost zero updates.
Short version: Turbo Admin is almost completely AI-free.
Long version:
It's kinda sad that I have to state this for you - I'd much prefer that the default was software built without AI, and you have to state that you use it. But I want to be clear, because I know some of you care (as I do!): AI is not used in my ongoing development of Turbo Admin.
Being 100% honest: I can't say it's "AI-free" because, for a while, I had GitHub Copilot on and it was giving my line-by-line suggestions, with each line looked at by me and accepted if correct.
I was doing this to experiment with LLM's in their earlier days (perhaps mid-2025). But that is turned off now and I don't use any LLM-based coding agents or AI assistance in any of the development of Turbo Admin or the running of the product or my business.
