u/Appropriate_Put_6454

 Hey everyone,

We all know the massive wall we hit when trying to use modern AI tools with FileMaker. If you paste native FM XML into Claude or ChatGPT, you get hit with a massive token tax (it’s about 5.6x larger than standard code), and the AI usually hallucinates because it struggles to parse the proprietary tags. The native Script Workspace just wasn't built for the agentic era.

So, I bypassed it.

I built ai2fm—a bidirectional compiler that translates FileMaker XML into a deterministic, linter-enforced textual language (.fmscript). This lets you copy a script out of FileMaker, paste it into VS Code, and let autonomous AI agents actually read, refactor, and audit your business logic accurately.

Richard Carlton invited me onto FMTraining.tv this Tuesday to do a live "Vibe Coding" demonstration.

I’ll be taking legacy scripts, dropping them into VS Code, and deploying a triad of AI agents to instantly refactor the logic, write the documentation, and audit it for safety. I’ll also break down the zero-retention XSLT architecture we use to ensure your proprietary schema stays completely private.

If you are tired of the XML token tax and want to see how to actually use LLMs for professional-grade FM engineering, come hang out.

When: Tuesday, 05/26/2026 at 1PM Pacific Time Where: https://www.twitch.tv/fmtraining

Happy to answer any technical questions about the compiler architecture in the comments!

Last night, I dropped in briefly at the FileMaker Stammtisch with one goal: 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲.

As I shared live on screen, the global adoption of Agentic AI development with https://ai2fm.com/ in #FileMaker is accelerating faster than anyone anticipated.

Over the last 30 days alone, we've seen massive traffic—including nearly 20,000 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐆𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲.

The market is speaking.

Because of this rapid adoption, I officially announced the creation of https://fmscript.org/

The goal is simple: to formally standardize the bidirectional text syntax for FileMaker scripts.

𝐀 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐒𝐎 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Our community of #FileMaker developers, our AI in web chats, our AI agents at the cli and IDE—and our plugin developers—need a universal, open standard to work with, rather than relying on fragmented, gated internal tools.

During the meeting, Philipp Amadeus Puls the organiser of #ViennaCalling asked a very fair question:

"𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝?"

My answer was simple. As developers, it is our responsibility to build the tools we need to push the platform forward today.

We are doing the heavy lifting to pave the road, and Claris, is more than welcome to officially adopt the standard once the community has matured it.

Philip’s playful response?

"Then you need to send them a huge bill for doing it!"

But beyond the code, the biggest lesson we’ve learned this month is about the 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭.

Brilliant developers who have mastered the native FileMaker GUI for 20 years are facing a massive psychological hurdle when leaping to VS Code.

We realize they need a bridge.

That is why we are dedicating heavy resources right now to building comprehensive, step-by-step visual onboarding guides.

If we want this ecosystem to evolve, 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦.

A massive thank you to Marcel Moré for hosting such an incredible group of elite developers, and for advocating so hard for his local community.

The standard is here. Let's build the future together.

#ai2fm #FileMaker #Claris #fmscript

 Hey everyone,

Like a lot of you, I’ve been trying to use Claude and Codex to help refactor legacy FileMaker scripts. But because FileMaker is entirely UI-driven, getting the logic out of the Script Workspace and into an AI prompt usually involves digging into raw XML, which is an absolute nightmare and prone to breaking when pasted back.

AI is built for text. FileMaker is built for the UI.

To fix this, I built ai2fm — it's a clipboard bridge that translates FileMaker XML into a clean, readable text language (.fmscript) that AI agents actually understand.

Here is what the workflow looks like:

1. You copy a script from the FM Script Workspace.
2. You paste it into VS Code (or Cursor/VS Code/Windsurf). It automatically translates into clean .fmscript text.
3. You let Claude/Gemini/Copilot refactor, shrink, or document the code.
4. You validate it and paste it right back into FileMaker. It recompiles back into native XML on the clipboard, ready to drop into the Workspace.

The best part: I made the IDE extension completely free. Even if you don't care about AI, the free VS Code extension gives you real-time syntax highlighting, strict linting, and autocomplete for FileMaker scripts. It essentially turns VS Code into a first-class FileMaker IDE.

I actually just demoed the "Vibe Coding" workflow live on the ClarisTalk podcast with Matt Navarre yesterday if you want to see the 183-line round-trip in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg1LieGfHTU&list=PL6751maw5cyzDnHc7wqM_vXQ_ldxX0XDE

 

You can grab the free VS Code extension here: ai2fm.com 

 

And we're tracking bugs/feedback on our community GitHub: https://github.com/AxelarEU/ai2fm-community