Nah, I'm not paying to give away my data. But I do really want a good tasks app that is self hostable, end to end encrypted, with great client side apps. Maybe I'll reverse engineer things 3 and make an Android version.
I just vibe coded my own and it ended being perfect for me. It has a lot of features, but those features are all things I wanted and evolved with use. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you can spend time learning someone else’s system, but in the year of 2026, you can probably but together something you already know how to use just as quickly.
I used AI to help build it, but this isn't a one-shot app: I did research, UI flows (ascii first, then designs and mocks), code critiques, schema rewrites, performance analysis and tuning.
...and I get the idea that you can vibe-code a very polished looking version of something, and I think that's going to change software development in ways we haven't thought of yet. I think open-source becomes viable with an audience of only one person now, the true long tail.
However, just like you can already see older open source projects, the immediate value pales when compared to long term activity, and one-off projects die fast. (And I've built one-off task management tools for myself before).
I think the real value here is in having something that does all of the work, and without you having to spend your time on it. Just as I'm using Vercel so that I don't have to manage build systems and servers, and Neon so that I don't have to manage a database, I am using this so I don't have to manage my task list.
That's fair. I wanted to share the story, which boils down to: I didn't want a todo list, I wanted software that did all the painful work of a task management system. It does for me what I did for myself when other task systems broke down: reads the list, emails me with three for the day. I built it for myself, and using it convinced me to offer it for sale. I tried to make it as reliable as possible, as fast as possible, and was unwilling to compromise on trust (no training, no use/sale of your data, no looking at your data without explicit recorded consent).
This is super cool. But there's a very high likelihood that your past self would not have used this tool. For the simple reason that you wouldn't want company information going out to a third party.
I get the concern. I don't think the characterization is true at all (I've used todoist, I've used asana), but I do care about privacy, and I do care about owning my data, which is why it is at least as easy to take out (if not easier), then it is to put in.
If you use it, your list goes to Anthropic to be ranked, under commercial terms that exclude training on it, and I never look at it (I've built support tools to help customers, but they won't access user data unless the user opens a support case, and then explicitly grants access for a temporary time). It isn't open source, but you can export everything at any time as plain text or JSON.
I also get the company concerns... When I was at Google, there were strict rules, and I used buganizer (among other internal systems), but even at Google there were external companies that were trusted with this kind of data once they'd been reviewed (for example, I used asana while I was at Google).
Nah, I'm not paying to give away my data. But I do really want a good tasks app that is self hostable, end to end encrypted, with great client side apps. Maybe I'll reverse engineer things 3 and make an Android version.
I just vibe coded my own and it ended being perfect for me. It has a lot of features, but those features are all things I wanted and evolved with use. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you can spend time learning someone else’s system, but in the year of 2026, you can probably but together something you already know how to use just as quickly.
https://aventasks.dev/ may tick some of your boxes. Glad to hear which ones it doesn't
Used to love that app, dont get why there was never Things 4
App monetization is wild these days. $9.99/month for a todo app with email that was generated with AI.
Meanwhile, an AI subscription starts at $20/month and you can vibe code your own version to suit your preferences and free forever.
I actually love the idea and the web demo, but unfortunately I fully agree with you
I used AI to help build it, but this isn't a one-shot app: I did research, UI flows (ascii first, then designs and mocks), code critiques, schema rewrites, performance analysis and tuning.
...and I get the idea that you can vibe-code a very polished looking version of something, and I think that's going to change software development in ways we haven't thought of yet. I think open-source becomes viable with an audience of only one person now, the true long tail.
However, just like you can already see older open source projects, the immediate value pales when compared to long term activity, and one-off projects die fast. (And I've built one-off task management tools for myself before).
I think the real value here is in having something that does all of the work, and without you having to spend your time on it. Just as I'm using Vercel so that I don't have to manage build systems and servers, and Neon so that I don't have to manage a database, I am using this so I don't have to manage my task list.
With respect, that's a wall of text.
That's fair. I wanted to share the story, which boils down to: I didn't want a todo list, I wanted software that did all the painful work of a task management system. It does for me what I did for myself when other task systems broke down: reads the list, emails me with three for the day. I built it for myself, and using it convinced me to offer it for sale. I tried to make it as reliable as possible, as fast as possible, and was unwilling to compromise on trust (no training, no use/sale of your data, no looking at your data without explicit recorded consent).
This is super cool. But there's a very high likelihood that your past self would not have used this tool. For the simple reason that you wouldn't want company information going out to a third party.
Any plans to open source the harness/skill?
I get the concern. I don't think the characterization is true at all (I've used todoist, I've used asana), but I do care about privacy, and I do care about owning my data, which is why it is at least as easy to take out (if not easier), then it is to put in.
If you use it, your list goes to Anthropic to be ranked, under commercial terms that exclude training on it, and I never look at it (I've built support tools to help customers, but they won't access user data unless the user opens a support case, and then explicitly grants access for a temporary time). It isn't open source, but you can export everything at any time as plain text or JSON.
I also get the company concerns... When I was at Google, there were strict rules, and I used buganizer (among other internal systems), but even at Google there were external companies that were trusted with this kind of data once they'd been reviewed (for example, I used asana while I was at Google).
exactly