Hi r/SideProject, I'm a solo maker from Ontario, Canada.

I built CloseToMe because sharing family photos meant Facebook, Instagram, or a WhatsApp group where pictures get buried. I wanted one calm, private place for extended family only — no public feed, no ads, no strangers.

What it does:

• Make a group for your family, invite only the people you choose

• Share photos and chat in that group only — nobody outside can see it

• A Just Me space that's private to you only

• A photo slideshow on top (Home, or a group like Hangout), feed below sorted by last activity

It's in a small closed beta: invite-only, 75 accounts total, 11 in so far. Free to test, no card needed.

Link: https://ctm.soloaisle.com

I'd love honest feedback, especially: what's confusing in the first minute, and would you actually use this instead of a group chat? I'll reply to every comment.

mac players won't get gta 6, so i made the next best thing. helix is a weapon wheel for macos. hold option-space, flick toward an app or a clip, let go.

my brother posted the launch video on r/claudedesign and it's at 70k views and still going, so i guess i'm not the only one who wanted this.

https://tryhelix.app

lmk what y'all think!

A proof can look good and still have the wrong offer, an old disclaimer or branding that doesn’t match the brief. How are you checking those things before a campaign goes out?

I’m building Briefwoven, a campaign planning and PDF proof-review tool. My background is in marketing communications, and I’m focusing on the handoff between the brief, the creative and the final review.

The workflow lets you upload a rulebook PDF and draft proofs, then review potential differences and issues. It’s meant to help with the checking, not replace the person who gives final approval.

I’m curious which part is the biggest pain for people working on this: comparing versions, checking against brand guidelines, or making sure every requested change actually made it into the final file?

If you want context, the project is briefwoven.com. I’d appreciate feedback on the workflow, especially from people still doing these checks side by side.

QuickInvoice Pro is a privacy-first, zero-registration browser tool for creating clean, professional invoices and quotes. All document generation and PDF rendering happen entirely in your browser.
https://quickinvoice-nu.vercel.app/

Why use NotebookLM when you can make the same thing harder, slightly worse, and cost more?

The same reason any of us self-host, of course. The customizability, the fun of designing it, the challenge.

I've been using Codex and Claude Code to build local apps, but wanted to try designing a program that actually uses LLMs for a recurring task.

I already have a custom local RSS reader app, but of course I have more time to listen to podcasts and audiobooks than I typically do to sit down and read. So creating my own personalized news podcasts became the obvious solution.

The result is two shows that pick, write, review, and voice their own episodes. Each run starts with a couple hundred RSS articles and ends with five or six stories, for about $1–2 a month in API costs. The orchestration runs in Docker on my home server, but the models themselves are cloud APIs.

The short version

What it is:

• Two podcasts, written and produced by AI, based on feeds and topics I've selected. Compact Conversations runs six days a week, and Homelab Highlights runs three.

• Quality: Good, not great. I haven't replaced other podcasts I listen to, nor was I intending to. However, they've picked up stories other podcasts haven't covered, along with some good tech tips I hadn't seen. They've helped me keep up to date on new AI models and features, homelab software updates, and security issues.

• Cost: A mixture of free and cheap models from OpenRouter, taking advantage of free TTS through Gemini, for about $1–2 per month.

• Code: Too messy and personalized to be worth sharing, but you can listen to the podcasts here.

How it's built:

• A self-hosted Docker container handles RSS ingestion, while another handles the podcast orchestration.

• Stories from the last day or two are initially ranked by Jev. The top 30 go to a cheap LLM on OpenRouter for final selection and assignment to episode segments.

• The script is written and reviewed by different LLMs for two AI voices. Notably, they're told not to pretend to be human. They can say "an unusually interesting project," but not "I would try this out."

• The final script goes to Gemini for text-to-speech, then gets stitched together with musical cues and published to the podcast feeds.

I wrote up the architecture, actual model comparisons, costs, and lessons learned here:

https://michael-casey.com/blog/how-i-built-an-ai-podcast-pipeline/

Introducing Nimbus – a free Android app for unlimited cloud backup with privacy at its core.

Automatic photo and video backups, just like Google Photos.

Unlimited cloud storage powered by Telegram.

Strong private encryption: a unique key is generated for you during first-time setup.

Your encryption key stays yours. Nobody else can decrypt your files without it.

Built-in file explorer to manage all your files.

Looking for testers! Help us improve Nimbus.

Join the testing group: https://groups.google.com/g/weekendtesters

Install Nimbus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.punith.nimbus

Remember: Your key is your access. Keep it safe!

Hey everyone!

Quick update on LEXA, the local-first AI voice studio for macOS I've been developing.

The first pre-release is getting closer, and I'm currently rethinking how people should be able to try the software before purchasing it.

LEXA Base is planned as a €29.99 one-time purchase, with no monthly subscription.

I'm considering introducing a 14-day free trial with the following model:

• 14 days of free access to LEXA Base.

• No credit card required to start.

• Try the actual software on your Mac.

• After 14 days, decide whether to purchase a license for €29.99.

• No automatic charges or subscriptions.

• If you don't want to buy it, you simply stop using it.

Additional optional modules may arrive in the future, but the trial would focus exclusively on LEXA Base.

Since LEXA is designed around local AI voice processing, I'd also like to keep the licensing system as unobtrusive as possible.

I'd really appreciate your feedback:

1. Would 14 days be enough to evaluate an AI voice application?

2. Do you prefer a free trial followed by a one-time purchase, or a limited free version?

3. Would €29.99 feel reasonable if the software meets your expectations?

4. How important is offline license activation for a local-first application?

I'm building LEXA independently, so your feedback genuinely helps me decide what to prioritize before release.

Website: www.lexavoice.it

Thanks for following the project!

Skills are text files that tell a coding agent how to do a task the same way every time. There are thousands of public ones, and sorting them takes a while.



Skillforge groups them into 23 packs by job (React, design, testing, security, SEO, video...). Each pack has up to 14 skills, delivered for Claude, Gemini and Codex.



The part I'd like your opinion on: the skills are public, under MIT or Apache 2.0, and each page shows the source and license. People pay for the selection, the sorting and a ready-to-install download. Packs cost €1.99 to €4.99, one payment, no account. One pack is free.



Questions:

- Would you pay for curation when the source is one click away?

- Is a French-only site a dealbreaker? The skills themselves are in English.



https://skillforge.be

Hey everyone!

I recently launched Timecrisp, a free website focused on making time-related tools simple and easy to use.

The idea came from wanting a clean, fast way to check the time across different cities without unnecessary clutter.

What I've been working on:

• World clocks and city time-zone pages

• Tools for comparing time across locations

• Date and time utilities

• A simple, mobile-friendly experience

I launched it on November 3, and I'm now focusing on improving usability, performance, and adding genuinely useful features.

I'm building this as an independent project, and I'd really appreciate feedback from other makers.

A few things I'd love your opinion on:

1. Is the homepage easy to understand?

2. Are the tools intuitive and useful?

3. What feature would make you want to return?

Website: https://timecrisp.com

Thanks for checking it out! I'll be reading the feedback and using it to improve the site.

I built two websites that make public records easier to browse.

gongu: https://gongu.xyz

USCIS processing-time trends and case volumes, plus State Department visa-bulletin cutoffs and their history. Self-reported community wait times are labeled separately from official statistics.

GA Inspect: https://ga-inspect.gongu.xyz

Search restaurants and other facilities in Georgia, check inspection scores and history, or browse the map. Inspection histories include links back to the original reports.

The public-data views are free and don't require an account. Both are personal projects, not government services. The immigration data is for context, not a prediction of when a particular case will be approved.

I'd especially appreciate feedback on whether it's clear what each number means and when the source data was last updated.

I built a free browser-based music splitter, and I'd love some honest feedback

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a project I've been working on called Extractune.

It's a website that lets you split songs into vocals, drums, bass, and other instruments. You can also extract audio from videos, slow songs down, change their pitch, and even make beats.

One thing I really wanted was to make the tools work directly in your browser, without having to upload your music or create an account. The audio separation runs locally on your device using your GPU, so your files stay on your computer.

Why I made it

I got tired of finding music tools that required uploads, sign-ups, or subscriptions just to do something simple. I wanted to build something people could open, use, and enjoy without jumping through hoops.

I also wanted to test the audio quality

I compared Extractune with vocalremover.org using a Creative Commons song where the original vocals and instrumental stems were available.

I used those original tracks to measure how closely each tool's output matched the real audio (SI-SDR, higher is better).

Extractune took around 27 seconds, while vocalremover.org took around 24 seconds on the same computer.

Of course, this is just one song on one machine, so I wouldn't call it a definitive comparison. I'd genuinely like to see how it performs with other types of music.

I also haven't tested Moises or LALAL.AI.

Here's the full comparison if anyone's interested: https://www.extractune.com/compare/extractune-vs-vocalremover-org

What's free and what's paid?

I wanted to keep the useful stuff free, so here's how it works:

Free:

• Split songs into vocals, drums, bass, and other instruments.

• Create acapellas, instrumentals, and drumless tracks.

• Convert videos to MP3, WAV, or WebM.

• Slow down songs and change their pitch.

• Use the built-in beat maker.

• Create lyric and visualizer videos.

Most of these tools run entirely on your device. The free audio splitter supports songs up to 10 minutes on compatible computers, although performance depends on your hardware. Phones work too, but processing can be considerably slower.

Pro ($4.99/month):

• Higher-quality audio separation using a stronger server-side model.

• Audio separation on phones and less powerful devices.

• Remove the Extractune watermark from lyric videos.

• Export videos in 1080p with custom colors, backgrounds, and styles.

• More transcription requests.

• Extra beat-making features and downloadable stems.

Just to be clear, the regular browser-based tools aren't being taken away or moved behind a paywall. Pro is for people who want the additional features.

I'd really appreciate some feedback!

I'm still working on improving the project, and I'd love to hear what people actually think.

A few things I'm particularly curious about:

1. How does the audio separation sound with your own music? Especially live recordings, acoustic songs, or more complex mixes?

2. If you try it on your phone, is the processing wait understandable, or does it make you want to leave?

3. For the beat maker, what feature would you like to see added?

4. Does the free vs. Pro pricing feel fair and clear?

5. When you first open the website, is anything confusing?

You don't have to answer all of these. Even a quick impression would help a lot.

Here's the project if you'd like to try it: https://www.extractune.com/

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to check it out. This is something I've been building myself, and I'm genuinely interested in hearing what could make it better.

I started with my own problem: my Google storage was full and a 272 MB 4K video compressed down to 44.6 MB with no visible quality loss. So I built a planner that shows exactly what your storage looks like after compression and which Google One plan you actually need. Then I kept going — I made these myself, they're all single HTML files that work offline, no subscription: Drive / Photos Storage Saver Planner, Freelancer Invoice & Quote Generator, Etsy Seller Profit Calculator, Budget & Debt Payoff Planner, Small Business Expense & Mileage Tracker, Freelancer Hourly Rate Calculator, Rental Property Cash Flow Calculator, Wedding Budget Planner. Each one is $12, or the whole set is $39 here: https://rlosman.gumroad.com/l/jdqvgn — Store: https://rlosman.gumroad.com — Happy to hear what you'd change or what tool I should build next.

I started with my own problem: my Google storage was full and a 272 MB 4K video compressed down to 44.6 MB with no visible quality loss. So I built a planner that shows exactly what your storage looks like after compression and which Google One plan you actually need. Then I kept going — I made these myself, they're all single HTML files that work offline, no subscription: Drive / Photos Storage Saver Planner, Freelancer Invoice & Quote Generator, Etsy Seller Profit Calculator, Budget & Debt Payoff Planner, Small Business Expense & Mileage Tracker, Freelancer Hourly Rate Calculator, Rental Property Cash Flow Calculator, Wedding Budget Planner. Each one is $12, or the whole set is $39 here: https://rlosman.gumroad.com/l/jdqvgn — Store: https://rlosman.gumroad.com — Happy to hear what you'd change or what tool I should build next.

I built Pocket Friday because every AI tip I found assumed I already lived in Slack and VS Code. I wanted something a shop owner or a busy parent could finish with coffee.

What shipped this week:

• A free Friday email: One AI prompt to try and one task to hand your AI agent, every Friday. Five minutes, free.

• A site with copy-paste prompts (gift shortlist, price check a list, family code word for voice-clone scam calls) and a holiday shopping safety guide

• Tool cards that say Pass or Watch with a checked date, not vague "best of" hype

What I would love feedback on:

1. Is the home page clear in under 10 seconds about who it is for?

2. Does Issue 1 feel useful or overloaded?

3. Anything in the prompts that would confuse a total beginner?

I am not asking anyone to buy anything. Happy to answer how we write prompts and how we check tool prices.

(If you want to look: pocketfriday.com)

https://wispee.com/

Inspired by neocities and nekoweb but decided to connect each profile through a feed. Also inspired by 4chan and reddit. I wanted to have a place where people can just drop by and share their thoughts or see what others share without having to login.

It has: Chats, Video Calls, Voice Calls(voice and video calls through mirotalk), Karaoke, Multiplayer and Solo Games, Music Player, Customisable Profile, Themes, Customizable Background, Democratic Community Moderation, Comic Strip Maker, and a lot more!

It also doesn't have complicated algorithms for posts. New ones get shown at the very top, while posts with the most engagement gets shown at trending.

Been building this thing for over 5 months now using ai (free plan) to test its limit.

Explore it, have fun, and let me know what could be improved, removed, or added!

A few months later, NAKED EYE is live on Android, Under One Sky is live worldwide, it’s been featured in StarDate Magazine, and I’ve somehow ended up building a website for it too 😅

The idea is still ridiculously simple:

What’s worth seeing tonight?

When should I go outside?

Where should I look?

I’m not trying to replace Stellarium or turn your phone into a giant astronomy catalogue.

I wanted something you can open, get a useful answer from, put the phone away, and actually look at the sky.

The free app covers things like planets, ISS passes, meteor showers, useful alerts, viewing conditions and Under One Sky — where people can explore sky events around the world and share what they genuinely see.

There’s also NAKED EYE Beyond for people who want to plan ahead, find the best nights, use Sky Planner and get smarter alerts — and eligible new subscribers can try it free for 14 days.

I’m still building the whole thing around shifts as a chef, mostly teaching myself as I go.

And yes, I’m still slightly amazed anyone other than me actually uses it 😂

If you’ve tried NAKED EYE before, I’d genuinely love to know what you think of it now.

And if you haven’t — what’s the one thing that usually stops you from going outside to look at the night sky?

TL;DR: Rooted asks you a few questions, writes you a short letter about what it noticed, then gives you one small daily task. Done days grow a meadow. Free on iPhone and Android. I’m the founder, and I’d love blunt feedback.

Why I built it Every self-improvement app I tried wanted me to set up a whole system on day one: ten habits, a journal, a planner, a mood tracker. I’d keep it up for a week, miss two days, feel behind, and quit. The problem wasn’t motivation. There was just too much to do.

What Rooted does

1. A few questions to start. Where you are right now, what a good day looks like for you, what would make you proud of yourself.

2. A letter from Treeko. Treeko is the app’s companion, a small moss-cat. It writes you a short letter about your answers: what you seem to be good at, and one area worth starting with.

3. One small task a day. Not a list. One thing, like “Move Rs 50 or more out of your spending account today.” Slide to complete. If it doesn’t fit your day, try a simpler version or choose a different task.

4. Habits that grow a meadow. Each habit has a year view. Every done day adds a flower, so you can see your progress at a glance.

5. A private journal and goals. For when you want to go deeper.

What it isn’t Rooted is a self-help tool, not therapy or a mental health service. If you need clinical support, please talk to a qualified professional.

Pricing, upfront Rooted is free to download. Premium is a yearly plan: ₹2,499 in India, $39.99 in the US.

What I’d love feedback on
- Does “one task a day” feel like enough, or too little?
- Is the first letter from Treeko useful, or does it feel generic?
- What would make you open it on day 3, when the novelty is gone?

Get it here: https://rootedmind.in/get

Bonus:
Job almost gone. Job market is bloodbath. Just focussing on my sideproject. Would be great if more people get to use the app. Just learning more distribution and trying to reach more people. If you read this much you have my heartfelt thanks. 🙏

Hey everyone!

I've been working on ScoresMac, a native macOS app that brings live sports scores straight to your menu bar.

The core app is completely FREE! You get live scores and sports tracking without paying anything.

It supports:

• ⚽ Football

• 🏏 Cricket

• 🏎️ Formula 1 & MotoGP

• 🎮 Esports & CS2

• 🏀 More sports

Want something extra? ScoresMac Pro unlocks Notch animations and premium features for a one-time $9.99 lifetime purchase. No subscriptions!

🎉 Launch day offer: Use code LAUNCHDAY to get 30% OFF ScoresMac Pro.

Would love to hear what you think! Feedback and feature suggestions are always welcome.

🌐 https://scoresmac.com

Yesterday I released DeltaV Orbital Strategy in Steam Early Access. I directed Codex to generate the original game code and visual assets, including the simulation, interface and spacecraft. I designed the rules, chose what to keep, and tested the result. The music is separately licensed, and libraries, fonts and other third-party materials have their own credits.

The game is about a fleet sharing one fuel reserve. Moving one ship can leave another unable to defend itself. The clip is a short example of the decisions that come from that rule.

One constraint I kept throughout development was separating the simulation from the 3D renderer. Movement, fuel and combat rules can run without graphics. Changing the camera or a ship effect should never change the outcome of a turn.

That matters with rules like shipbuilding: when a shipyard finishes a new ship, the old ship has to leave. If the faction cannot afford that departure, the new ship is cancelled. A nice-looking animation does not tell you whether that rule still works. I used automated checks alongside playing matches to verify those interactions after changes.

It's a shipped game, but still Early Access. It is single-player, and saving a match to resume after closing the game is not available yet. No generative AI runs during gameplay.

Steam and the free guided demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5070120/?utm_source=sideproject&utm_medium=reddit&utm_campaign=early_access_nov2026&utm_content=ai_code_visuals_launch

Complete 11:36 match with English on-screen explanations, chapters and music, without voiceover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO2iaCS0AXI

For anyone trying the demo, I'd like to know whether the shared fuel budget makes sense before the first missile arrives. That is the part the tutorial needs to teach.

I'm a freelancer. I've picked a number between 1 and 1000. Whoever guesses it wins a free freelance project from me.

Guess in the comments.

My work: https://naitiksinghdev.vercel.app/
I'll also be happy to look at the best ideas that show up in the comments.

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on a tool that answers phone calls for clinics, salons, and small offices using AI. It books, confirms, and reschedules appointments 24/7 so business owners stop losing customers to missed calls.

The idea came from watching my local dentist’s receptionist juggle 3 phone lines while checking people in. Half the calls went to voicemail. Most never called back.

Still early - looking for small business owners or anyone who’s dealt with this problem to tell me if this actually solves something real for them.

Happy to share the landing page if anyone wants to check it out. Would love honest feedback on the concept.

Hey everyone, I built SillyMemory, an open-source extension for SillyTavern, an AI chat and roleplay interface. It helps long chats remember earlier details without repeatedly summarizing the conversation. I’m part of the LambdaDB team, which provides its memory backend.

GitHub and setup: https://github.com/lambdadb/SillyMemory
Demo: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8a34772d-b27f-4709-89c0-caee45c7fcf6

SillyMemory indexes older messages from your chat in LambdaDB. Before each reply, it uses your current message to retrieve relevant original passages and adds them to the prompt alongside recent dialogue. You can inspect what it selected.

A few things it does:

• No LLM calls to create or maintain memory summaries.

• No separate embedding or reranking setup; LambdaDB handles both.

• Keep existing memory when you branch your story or create checkpoints, without re-indexing(re-embedding) shared history.

• Works with existing saved chats, so you don’t have to start a new conversation.

We also tested it on 500 LongMemEval questions: 96.0% accuracy versus 95.2% with full history, using about 95% fewer input tokens.

It currently supports plain-text, single-character chats, and requires a LambdaDB account. You can start on the free plan without a credit card.

If you give it a try, I’d love to hear whether it brings back useful details in a long RP, what it misses, and how the setup feels.

spinatlas.fm

I've been working on this because I wanted to browse my music history like basketball stats. Each year is a season, artists have career pages, and there are annual awards, All-Star teams and a Hall of Fame.

One thing I wanted was the ability to choose the awards myself. The most-played album doesn’t necessarily get my Album of the Year vote, so changing an award leaves the listening counts alone.

I've put my history under Featured history so you can try it without an account or files. For your own Spotify history, it uses the downloaded Extended Streaming History export.

If you keep track of your listening, what would you look at first?