Four Names in 63 Days: How MyBase Actually Got Built (Part 1)
The verified build log of a creator platform: four product names, five homepage generations, and the ideas that were deliberately deleted.
26 August 2026 · 6 min read
MyBase has been called four different things in 63 days. It started as a generated app called IconHouse on 22 June 2026, became CreatorPick HQ seventeen hours later, shipped as ArxCove for eight weeks, and became MyBase on 20 August. This is part one of the build log — where it started, how many times it got rebuilt, why the name kept changing, and which ideas were deliberately deleted along the way.
Every number below comes from the repository's own history: git log, the file tree, and the session handoff archive. Nothing here is rounded up for effect.
Where did MyBase actually start?
The first commit is timestamped 2026-06-22 05:24:31 +0200 and reads "Initial commit: IconHouse creator-commerce platform". It contained 576 tracked files, 367 of them under src/, and six test files.
It was not written from scratch. The tree contains a .lovable/plan.md, and the inherited deck names a public URL on a hosted AI-builder domain. In other words: the idea existed as a generated prototype before it existed as a codebase. The scaffold was stripped the next day — commit 308ce672, "Remove Lovable + clean up dead files", followed by a separate commit just to delete the last builder-hosted favicon.
The database is older than the repository. Of the 196 SQL migrations in the project today, 75 carry 2025 timestamps, the earliest dated 2025-09-26 — roughly nine months before the first commit. Only 121 were written during this build.
Two of the first day's commits were security fixes: stopping public exposure of user emails via profiles, and unifying roles onto a single user_roles table. That set the pattern. The build has never been a straight line from idea to product; it has been an idea, rebuilt on top of itself, repeatedly.
How much work is in it?
1,809 commits between 2026-06-22 and 2026-08-24 — 63 days, averaging about 29 commits a day. July alone was 994 commits. The busiest single day was 86 commits on 2026-07-08.
| Measured at | First commit | 2026-08-24 |
|---|
| Tracked files | 576 | 4,865 |
Files under src/ | 367 | 929 |
| Test files | 6 | 283 |
| Tests | — | 3,418 |
At 2026-08-24, src/ was 196,199 lines of TypeScript, TSX and CSS: 147,755 lines of application code and 48,444 lines of tests. Behind it sat 196 migrations, 33 edge functions, 87 route declarations, 64 page components and 168 markdown documents.
Why did the platform change its name four times?
Because each name was chosen for a version of the product that then changed underneath it.
| Name | Adopted | Commit | Lasted |
|---|
| IconHouse | 2026-06-22 05:24 | first commit | ~17 hours |
| CreatorPick HQ | 2026-06-22 22:07 | c36f8ca8 | 6 days |
| ArxCove | 2026-06-28 02:29 | 35c47ec9 | 53 days |
| MyBase | 2026-08-20 21:33 | 4bc6c6b1 | current |
The last one is the interesting one, because it was argued against and shipped anyway. The research warned that the name was taken: a knowledge-base application has shipped under it since 1998 and owns the search query, seven or more other live brands use it, and a funded product in the same creator category launched in July 2025 under a closely related name. The note also observed that every current category leader has a coined name, while the descriptive-named cohort has no leader. The handoff records the outcome verbatim: "I ADVISED AGAINST THE RENAME AND HE PROCEEDED ANYWAY — that is his call and it is settled."
Four backups were taken before it touched main: a git tag, a backup branch, a 238MB full-history bundle and a 199MB tree zip. The rebrand itself was one commit — roughly 700 user-facing strings, a new wordmark, a new accent system, new icons — followed by a 54-agent residue sweep across 52 pages.
Then it shipped to a dead pipe. The deploy hook had quietly died the night before; pushes to main were creating no deployment at all. The live site kept serving the old build until the founder reconnected the pipeline by hand.
Some of the old names are still here on purpose. The workspace folder is still called "IconHouse - redesign", the app folder is still "arxcove", and 114 CSS custom properties still carry the --ih- prefix. Forty-eight @arxcove.com email addresses were deliberately left in place during the domain sweep, because the mailboxes are not migrated. Renaming things that nobody reads is churn; the old domain now redirects and the visible copy is clean.
Why does nothing get deleted when a design is replaced?
Five homepage generations exist in the code right now: the original, sandbox v2, v3, the v4 halo hero, and v5 — which is the live homepage today, selected by a single line, HOME_PAGE = 'v5'.
That is the working method. At 2026-08-24, src/config/features.ts was 1,262 lines and exported 39 flags, most of them carrying a paragraph explaining how to revert in one word. Before sandbox v2 was even allowed to exist, three restore points of the original design were required first: a pushed git tag, a 2,899-file folder copy, and a 127MB zip.
It has been needed. A full homepage redesign went live at 02:41 on 2026-08-08 — "V3 is the homepage, behind one word" — and was reverted at 19:26 the same day. About seventeen hours. The next day, the V4 halo hero replaced only the hero and left the rest of the page alone. That is the difference between a rebuild and a revert: one of them takes a day, the other takes a word.
Which ideas failed and got deleted?
- The mascot lived three days. Arx shipped on 2026-07-10 as the profile assistant and the 149-line component was deleted on 2026-07-13 on the founder's call: "remove the arx avatar… i did not like it". It is now a standing rule — never reintroduce.
- 294 lines of invented creators were deleted for honesty. The commit is literally named
feat(honesty): it removed a fake-creator directory and redirected the route to the real discover page. No fake stats, counts or traction anywhere in the product. - Hero paint-strokes were cancelled outright on 2026-07-09 and marked never revive. The design queue closed with eight of nine tasks shipped and task nine cancelled.
- One experiment ended byte-identical to where it began. The logo was tried as the "A", then centred, then all of it reverted. The note reads: do not re-propose either.
- "Deleting decoration to look premium" has been rejected four times. Empty is not premium.
Four ideas are now permanently closed and written into the handoff specifically so nobody re-proposes them. That list is a feature, not an admission.
Which rules turned out to be wrong?
The architecture rule — "Base never imports from a sandbox; a sandbox may import from base" — was written on 2026-08-10, after the fact. When it finally got a test, it found thirteen violations, not the two anyone expected. Three of those were invisible until the guard learned to read side-effect imports like import '@/styles/v2.css';, which have no from clause.
The same document opens by contradicting the founder's own brief, under the heading "The honest starting position", with a three-row table of mismatches — "because designing around a wrong picture is how this goes wrong".
And the session handoff file went bankrupt twice: archived at 677KB across 109 entries, then back to 332KB fourteen days later. The founder measured what that cost — roughly 12% of a fresh context window spent reading it before any work began, every session, for two weeks. The fix was not a cleanup. It was a test that fails the build when the file grows past budget, with an instruction attached: never trim the queue, and never summarise a lesson into something shorter and less true.
Part two covers what survived: the honesty rules that are enforced by the build, the outages no code could have fixed, and the things that are still open and logged as open.
FAQ
How many times has MyBase changed its name?
It has carried four names in 63 days: IconHouse at the first commit on 2026-06-22, CreatorPick HQ about seventeen hours later, ArxCove on 2026-06-28, and MyBase on 2026-08-20. Each rename is a single dated commit in the repository. The old domain now redirects to the current one.
Why rebrand to MyBase if the research advised against it?
The research flagged real risks: a knowledge-base app has shipped under that name since 1998 and owns the search query, seven or more other live brands use it, and a funded product in the same category launched under a closely related name in July 2025. The recommendation against it is recorded verbatim in the handoff, along with the fact that the founder proceeded anyway. It was his call, four full backups were taken first, and it is settled.
What happened to the MyBase mascot?
It shipped on 2026-07-10 as a profile assistant called Arx and was deleted three days later on 2026-07-13, on the founder's own call, because he did not like it. The 149-line component was removed entirely. Mascot artwork is now on the permanently closed list so it does not get re-proposed.
Does MyBase delete old designs when a new one ships?
No. Five homepage generations exist in the code today and the live one is selected by a single line in a 1,262-line feature-flag file that exports 39 flags. That is why a full homepage redesign that went live at 02:41 could be reverted the same evening at 19:26 without a rebuild.
How long has MyBase been in development, and is it launched?
1,809 commits between 2026-06-22 and 2026-08-24 — 63 days, averaging about 29 commits a day. It is pre-launch: the affiliate rails are not live and the five built translations are still switched off behind a flag. The honesty rule in the codebase forbids any claim of users or traction, so there is none here.
MyBase is a link-in-bio platform for creators. You get one page at
mybase.page/yourname that holds everything you recommend — products, affiliate
links and your own shop — and MyBase takes 0% commission and 0% sales fees,
so every cent a sale earns is yours. Alongside it sits The Vault, a curated catalogue where
a product only appears once it has passed an advanced, review-aggregating vetting process.
What it costs
Free forever: your public Creator Profile, your own affiliate links, every layout and accent
colour, curated backgrounds and profile analytics — 0% commission and 0% sales fees. Pro is
$9.99/month billed quarterly ($29.97) or $7.99/month billed yearly ($95.88) and adds custom
fonts, image and animated backgrounds, link styling, short links, an unbranded page and a tip
button. Pro never takes a share of your earnings either.
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