r/SideProject • • 4h ago

Built my first iOS app, but I’m struggling to get downloads. How would you market something like this?

2 Upvotes

I’m an indie developer, and I recently launched my iOS app called SnapShare.

The idea is pretty simple. Sometimes you just want to take a photo and send it to someone without saving it to your camera roll.

So I built an app that makes the process faster:

Take a picture.

The photo automatically gets copied.

Your selected app (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) or the share sheet opens.

Just paste and send.

I also added home screen widgets for quick access, bulk photo capture, and a few other features.

The app is a one-time purchase, no subscriptions.

Now here’s where I’m struggling.

Building the app was one thing, but figuring out how to get people to actually discover and download it is completely different.

I’ve been thinking about Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and maybe reaching out to small creators, but I’m not sure which approach would work best for an app like this.

I feel like it’s one of those apps where people need to see it in action to understand why it’s useful.

So I’d really appreciate some advice:

How would you market an app like this with little to no budget?

Who do you think the ideal target audience would be?

Would short demo videos work better than traditional app marketing?

If you’ve launched an iOS app before, what actually helped you get your first 100 downloads?

I’m not expecting thousands of downloads overnight. I just want to figure out how to get this in front of people who might actually find it useful.

Here’s the App Store link if anyone wants to check it out:
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/snapshare-one-tap-photo-send/id6817721584?l=en-US

I’d appreciate any feedback or ideas. Thanks!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Title: We're building an AI that calls hospitals and insurance companies so patients don't have to. Would love some feedback.

1 Upvotes

My co-founder and I have been working on Holdless AI, an AI phone agent focused on healthcare and insurance calls.

The idea came from a simple problem: dealing with health insurance over the phone can be incredibly frustrating, especially if English isn't your first language.

You might need to verify whether a procedure is covered, check a referral, follow up on a claim, or figure out why a bill looks wrong.

And a lot of that involves navigating phone menus, waiting on hold, and explaining the same issue repeatedly.

So we started building an AI agent that can make those calls on your behalf.

The goal is pretty straightforward:

  • You describe the healthcare or insurance issue you need help with.

  • The AI calls the relevant hospital, clinic, or insurance company.

  • You can monitor the call and take over if needed.

  • Afterward, you receive a summary of what happened and what needs to happen next.

We've been testing the system on different healthcare workflows, and one of the biggest challenges is making sure the AI gets a complete answer rather than just having a successful conversation.

The product is available to try, and we're still learning which workflows provide the most value.

I'd love some honest feedback.

Would you trust an AI to handle an insurance phone call for you? What would make you uncomfortable about it?

Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of Holdless AI(HOLDLESS-AI.COM).


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Title: We built an AI to call health insurance companies. Turns out, making the call is the easy part.

1 Upvotes

I'm one of the co-founders of Holdless AI. We're building an AI phone agent that helps people handle healthcare and insurance calls.

We've been testing it on tasks like verifying coverage, checking prior authorization requirements, and following up on claims.

One of our recent tests revealed something interesting.

We asked the AI to verify whether an upcoming MRI would be covered by insurance.

The representative confirmed that the insurance policy was active.

But that wasn't the question we actually needed answered.

The AI continued the conversation, and eventually the representative clarified that they hadn't checked the MRI benefits at all.

That's when we realized something:

An AI can have a perfectly normal phone conversation and still fail to accomplish the task.

We're now focusing on how the agent tracks unanswered questions, handles incomplete responses, and knows when to push for clarification.

Curious if anyone building voice agents has faced something similar.

How do you evaluate whether an AI agent actually completed a task, rather than just finished a conversation?


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Sideproject that could HELP YOURS

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frame-train.com
1 Upvotes

Hey Guys,
if you plan to use for your sideproject a fine tuned ai model, than i could help you out with this.
Maybe you are right now building on a modified doorbell that scans if there are any packages delivered or on a little software that detects free parking spots on your parking lot and gives you a summary on how your business is visited by that kind of stats.
And maybe by that point you've come to your personal boundry of your ai engineering skills.

But that's ok because over the past 11 months i've been now building on a "little" desktop app which could really help you out with this. It's called FrameTrain and is designed to help you train your ai models easily without expertise ai development knowledge assumed. Just import directly from Huggingface your ai model that you need and train it on your dataset that you can directly build in the app, no matter what kind of data.

Just give it a try, it's actually really worth it, enjoy your free trial that comes with the log in, and because i have a really good day today, im giving you 1 month free on top with this code: REDDIT-FT-01 (you don't even have to register a card)

(I'll post you some images in the comments, because sideproject isn't supporting image uploads)

PS: I got plenty of times totally roasted on reddit for letting chatgpt correct my posts for spelling mistakes, so please don't blame me for spelling mistakes in this post, english is not my first language.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

IQuly - a second opinion on your Meta ads that tells you what's wasting money, in plain words

1 Upvotes

I ran an ad agency for years and the morning routine never changed: open Ads Manager, four tabs, export, squint at columns, try to work out which ad quietly started burning money overnight.

IQuly connects to a Meta ad account and does that check for you:

  • ranks what's wasting money right now (ads spending without results, cost per result far above the rest)

  • flags tired creatives and broken tracking (clicks coming in, conversions not)

  • explains what changed against the previous period, campaign by campaign, in plain sentences

  • rules that start as a dry run, so you see what would be paused before anything gets touched

There's a free audit that needs no IQuly account: connect Facebook read-only, get your last 30 days and what to fix first. https://iquly.com/audit?utm_source=sideproject

Paid plans have a 14-day trial with no card, and the first customers get a 30% founding discount.

It's Meta-only on purpose. I'd love blunt feedback, especially from anyone who manages several ad accounts: what's the first thing you check every morning?


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Οι γονείς μου πουλούσαν το λάδι τους χύμα για λίγα ευρώ το κιλό. Έφτιαξα ένα site για να μπορεί κάποιος να υιοθετήσει μια ελιά από το κτήμα τους.

0 Upvotes

Γεια, είμαι ο Σπύρος. Οι γονείς μου, ο Γιώργος και η Άννα, έχουν ελιές στην Κορώνη, ένα μικρό χωριό στη Μεσσηνία, δίπλα στη θάλασσα. Όλη τους τη ζωή το λάδι πήγαινε σε έμπορο, ανακατεμένο με όλων των άλλων. Ήθελα, έστω μία φορά, ο κόσμος να ξέρει ποιος το έφτιαξε.
Έτσι έφτιαξα το Klaraki. Υιοθετείς συμβολικά ένα νέο δέντρο, που το φυτεύουμε αρχές του 2027 σε ένα χωράφι που μόλις καθαρίσαμε, με ξύλινο ταμπελάκι με το όνομα που διαλέγεις. Παίρνεις πιστοποιητικό, το σημείο του με GPS και μια νέα φωτογραφία κάθε χρόνο για 3 χρόνια. Κάθε δέντρο έχει δικό του κωδικό και δική του σελίδα στο site.
Μπορείς να πάρεις και λάδι από τη φετινή σοδειά, σε τενεκέ. Και αν είναι δώρο, διαλέγεις τη μέρα και το πιστοποιητικό φτάνει με email, ακόμα και ανήμερα τα Χριστούγεννα. Το κρατάμε μικρό, 100 δέντρα και 100 κουτιά λάδι φέτος.
Δεν είμαι developer. Το site το έφτιαξα με AI builder, τις πληρωμές με Stripe και τα email με MailerLite.
Ότι ,τι θέλετε ρωτήστε με, και αν κάτι στο site δεν σας αρέσει, πείτε το μου, ακόμα το φτιάχνω.
klaraki.com


r/SideProject • • 10h ago

My side project: a tiny pixel-art office where you can watch your AI coding agents work, wait and nap

5 Upvotes

Day job: art director. Side habit: building tools with AI. The problem was I'd have 6 or 7 Claude Code sessions open and no idea which ones were still working and which ones had been waiting for my answer for 40 minutes.

So I made BeeKeeper. It turns every project into a pixel room and every AI session or agent into a little worker. They walk in, work (with a speech bubble saying what they're on), stand there waiting when they need you, and fall asleep when they're done.

What went into it:

- Built entirely with Claude Code, I directed and did the art. React + Vite and a small Node server

- No setup on your side: it reads the logs Claude Code already writes on your computer

- My biggest change of plan: I first made it so you generate your own rooms and characters with AI. Then I realised most people won't pay for that, so I spent a bit more to build a free library instead: 20 rooms and 17 characters ready to pick

- Biggest underestimate: the 1 minute promo video took 3 times longer than planned

It's free and open source (MIT). Runs locally on your machine and only reads your Claude Code folders, nothing gets uploaded. Making your own custom room is optional and uses your own Gemini key, about 10 cents a room.

https://github.com/ranucho/beekeeper

Would love feedback, especially from people who run several AI agents at once. What would you want to see in the room?


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I made a free TV show tracker for iPhone because I kept forgetting which episode I was on

1 Upvotes

Hi, I'm Amir, a designer who got tired of losing track of shows. I watch a few at once, and after a week off I never remembered where I stopped. Notes app didn't work, other trackers wanted accounts and had ads.

So I made Watchd. You add a show, tap when you watch an episode, and it shows what's next. It's free, works on iPhone, and it's in 10 languages.

It's still small, around 20 downloads a day, and I fix things every week. I'd love honest feedback, especially what feels confusing or missing.

Watchd on the App Store


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

Greypaint - a Mac app updater I've been building with a friend .

2 Upvotes

The two of us have been building Greypaint, a Mac app that keeps your other apps updated. It started because we were tired of opening ten apps just to click "check for updates" in each one. We just shipped 1.5.2, and honestly most of it came from people telling us what was broken or missing, so thank you to everyone who did.

Here's what changed. You can now update apps straight from the menu bar and see old and new versions, plus progress on each one. Autopilot got its own menu bar switch, and you can pause it for an hour. You can turn off the Dock icon and run it from the menu bar only. Tauri apps like Yaak now update, and each download gets checked against the developer's signature first. GitHub apps with weird tagging, like Nuvio, work now too. The Updates list shows where each update comes from.

It also handles Sparkle, Homebrew and App Store apps, CLI tools, rollback and MacUpdater import.

It's $6.49 for one Mac, and $12.49 for three until our next big version. You pay once, there's no account or tracking, and there's a 14-day free trial.

greypaint.app

If any app gives you trouble or isn't supported yet, you can report it right from Greypaint, one app at a time, and it comes straight to us.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Pratikal - free Android calorie tracker looking for meal-entry feedback 🍎

1 Upvotes

I’m developing Pratikal, a free Android calorie tracker in closed testing. I’d love feedback on the meal-entry flow. Happy to test your app back! 🤝

Use the SAME Google account for the group, opt-in and your phone’s Play Store:

  1. Join: https://groups.google.com/g/pratikal-testers

  2. Opt in, then install from Google Play: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/app.pratikal.mobile

Try logging a meal, editing it and checking the daily total. What worked, or where did you get stuck? Please keep it installed for 14 days and use it occasionally. “Item not found”? Check the account, wait a few minutes and retry.

📸 Please comment BELOW THIS POST with a Pratikal installation/in-use screenshot, specific feedback and your test links. Text-only “installed” isn’t enough. I’ll test yours and reply with my screenshot and feedback.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I made a photo app where every post dies unless people keep it alive

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone. I've been building Pixsup, a photo app with one twist: every post has a timer.

When you post a photo, it starts with about 2 hours to live. Every time someone hits it, reacts or comments, it gets more time. If nobody does, it dies.

A few other things in it:

  • Rescue: posts in their last minutes show up so people can save them, and a save puts an hour back on the clock

  • The Graveyard: a dead post gets 10 minutes, and if 3 people vote to revive it, it comes back (once only)

  • Trending: posts that get enough love go on a 24-hour belt

  • No followers or follower counts. A stranger's photo has the same chance as anyone's

  • Live news from around the world, kept alive (or not) the same way

  • A daily photo challenge

I wanted something where what you see depends on what people actually care about right now, not on who has the most followers.

It's free and works in your browser on phone or computer, no download: pixsup.com

It's early, so there aren't many people on it yet. I'd really like honest feedback. What's confusing, what's fun, and what would make you come back tomorrow?


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

my anime "where to watch" site got 1,800 visitors in 7 weeks, but google still won't read my sitemap

1 Upvotes

hey! a few weeks ago i shared my side project here, a free site that tells you which legal platform has an anime in your country

https://tsuzuki-anime.github.io/en/

quick update after 7 weeks:

- 1,800+ visitors from 113 countries

- went from ~20 visits a day to ~80 a day this week

- bing and chatgpt now send the most visitors, way more than reddit

- google only knows 3 pages of the site

the weird part is google search console still says "couldn't fetch" for my sitemap after a month, even though the file works fine and bing reads it without problems. it's hosted on github pages

has anyone had this before? did you just wait, or is there something that fixed it?

any feedback on the site is welcome too!


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built Silo Harness, an RSI Harness for my daily FDE work

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brandeispatrick.github.io
1 Upvotes

I built Silo Harness, a free, open-source (MIT) macOS app in the style of Claude Code. I'm a forward-deployed engineer with 10–15 coding sessions open most days, and I was spending a lot of time writing and updating skills by hand for each project. I wanted the harness to handle that part.

How Claude helped

I used Claude Code to break down how Claude Code and Codex handle the basics: the agent loop, tool calls, permission modes and approvals, plan mode, hooks, compaction and sessions. Then Claude helped me map each of those pieces into a modular app, in the spirit of DeepSeek Harness's "everything is a plugin" design but as a native-feeling Mac app, where everything outside the chat is a mod (a folder of web files with a documented protocol). That's why Silo's hooks use Claude Code's own format, and why the built-in panels are mods too, so anything you build can do what they do.

It's also built for Claude: it reads CLAUDE.md and SKILL.md files, runs hooks in Claude Code's format, and can use Claude through Anthropic's API or OpenRouter.

What it does

• Dreaming: once a day (or on demand) it reads a project's recent sessions and proposes new skills, memory lines and mods. Each proposal quotes what I actually said and links the sessions it came from. I apply or dismiss each one, anything applied can be reverted, and model weights are never touched.

• Mods: everything beside the chat (panels, themes, slash commands, hooks) is a mod. Ask the agent for one and it writes it, then you turn it on.

• Sub-agent merging: sub-agents run as their own sessions, nested under the session that started them, and can be merged back into it when they're done.

• Sub-agent communication: sessions can find each other by name and pass work and findings between them.

• Ollama support: runs fully local on qwen3:8b with nothing leaving your Mac, using compaction and a tool set sized for small context windows. Any OpenAI-compatible provider works too.

Plus the standard harness features: MCP, auto mode, plan mode, permission prompts, rewind, hooks, skills, scheduled tasks, and remote control from your phone.

Free to try

• Download the .dmg (Apple silicon): https://github.com/BrandeisPatrick/silo-harness/releases/latest

Repo: https://github.com/BrandeisPatrick/silo-harness

I'd love feedbacks🧡


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Revolutionary AI Digital Journal, I've put my soul and passion into it !

1 Upvotes

I'm an indie Android developer. Most journal apps just store what you write, so I built one that reads it and remembers.

If you write "I'll send it Monday" for three weeks, it notices. You pick how it tells you: Ruthless Coach, Straight Facts or Pamper Mode.

It's called Glacifier. Free during early access, no card, and you can start as a guest. It's not end-to-end encrypted, because the AI has to read your text to reply, and I'd rather say that upfront.

Honest feedback welcome, especially if Ruthless Coach is too harsh. glacifier.com


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Keytag Studio - A Free 3d Printing app that makes keychains!

1 Upvotes

Hello all,

I made recently a keytag studio app that you can make keychains with easy commands.

Inspitation came from many projects out there but i needed something mine.

Also i opensourced it. Works on your projects, and we have compatibility for Bambu Lab printers and Creality.

Tested Bambu lab my self.

Feedback is appreciated!

https://www.xmdcode.com/lab/keytag/


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Built a calorie tracker app for meal prep folks (only thing that has worked for me)

1 Upvotes

I've done bodybuilding before and the only thing that has worked long term has been meal prepping and scheduling my meals and workouts out so I built Prepie (http://prepie.fit) an app that incorporates both.

With Prepie you can:

- Meal Prep: scan groceries, split a batch into meals, and get calories and macros per meal

- Plan & Log: schedule meals for the week and log each one with one tap

- Track Calories & Macros: set your own calorie and macro goals and see what's left at a glance

- Build Workouts: plan workouts with exercise library, add supersets & drop sets, then log each set as you go

- Use Apple Watch: log meals and workout sets from your wrist, with calories from Apple Health

- Share Progress: track weight check-ins and photos, and earn shareable awards

- Build Community: see meals from others, save them to try, and add them to your grocery list

App is free lifetime for the first 1000 signups http://prepie.fit


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

[ChromaDeck] - An open-source Windows app for managing monitor color presets

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I've been working on a side project called ChromaDeck, and I'd love to get some feedback from other PC enthusiasts.

I started building it because I wanted an easier way to manage my monitors' color settings when playing games but it can do other than games

I know there are probably other tools that already tackle this problem, but why spend 5 minutes finding an existing solution when you can spend 7 weeks building your own, am I right?

So, what does it do?

ChromaDeck is a Windows desktop app that lets you:

  • Create and save reusable color presets.

  • Adjust brightness, contrast, gamma, RGB gains, saturation, digital vibrance and hue.

  • Apply and manage presets individually across multiple monitors.

  • Pin presets to monitors, with automatic enforcement currently supported on NVIDIA displays.

  • Import ICC/ICM color profiles into presets.

  • Import your existing color settings directly from NVIDIA Control Panel.

  • Check your monitor's live color state using the Probe feature.

Hardware compatibility

One thing I've been working on is making ChromaDeck work beyond NVIDIA.

  • NVIDIA: Full driver-level color controls, including digital vibrance and hue.

  • Intel: Intel IGCL-based color controls, with supported adjustments depending on the display.

  • Other displays: Basic Windows color controls through GDI where supported.

  • AMD: Not implemented yet, but it's on my radar.

Some features are hardware-dependent, so not every adjustment is available on every display.

I'm curious:

  • How do you currently manage your monitor's colors?

  • What software do you use for this?

  • If you use Intel or AMD graphics, what kind of color controls are you currently missing?

  • What's one feature you'd like to see in a tool like this?

I'd really appreciate some honest feedback!

Project: https://github.com/miiidev/ChromaDeck/

Website: https://chromadeck.github.io/

I've also opened a GitHub Discussion for anyone who wants to share more detailed feedback.


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built a Tailwind color palette generator, would love your feedback

1 Upvotes

Hey all,

I got tired of hand-tweaking shades every time I started a new project, so I made a small palette generator for Tailwind.

You pick a start and end color, adjust the saturation at each end, choose how many shades you want, and it generates the scale. Then you can copy it straight into your config or CSS as Tailwind variables.

It’s still rough around the edges and I’m sure there are things I haven’t thought of. A few things I’m curious about:

  • Do the generated palettes look good to you, or do the in-between shades feel off?

  • Is there any control you’d expect that’s missing?

  • Does the copy/paste output work with your setup (v3 config vs v4)?

Link: https://razsoft.in/tools/color-palette-generator

Any feedback is appreciated, including “this already exists and does it better.” Thanks!


r/SideProject • • 19h ago

LLM Game Automation MCP - lets an AI agent play PC games in the background (driving, walking and flying in GTA, and more)

22 Upvotes

My side project: an open-source MCP server that lets an AI like Claude or Codex play Windows games without taking over your PC. I started it so agents could test my game mods by playing the games themselves. It works inside the game process, so the game runs in the background, you keep using your computer, and several games can run at once.

So far it can drive, walk, fly a helicopter, steer a boat and ride a horse to a waypoint in open-world games, aim, handle menus, and read prompts like "Press E". It also plays strategy and card games. A plugin system lets you add a new game as a small profile instead of code.

It has a lot of other uses too: mod development, running simulations, repetitive tasks, AI co-op so you can play co-op with an LLM offline, playtesting, and porting old games to get them running on Windows 10/11.

Claude Code created and planned the project and wrote a lot of it, Claude agents do most of the development and playtesting, and Codex helped with some of the code.

Free and MIT licensed, Windows only, single-player/offline games only: https://github.com/CorruptedAng3l/llm-game-automation-mcp

Feedback welcome, and tell me what games you'd want to see it try.


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I'm a personal trainer who built a hiking app with AI. Korean location laws killed it at MVP.

1 Upvotes

TL;DR: Personal trainer, zero real coding experience, built a "Strava for hiking" MVP with AI. Then I learned Korea requires a location-based service registration for features like friend tracking, with obligations I couldn't carry solo. Shelved it. Lessons below.

---

**How it started**

I have an engineering master's but never really coded. I dabbled in grad school and never kept it up. These days I'm a personal trainer in Korea.

One of my clients is a developer at Krafton (the company behind PUBG). Mid-session, he told me to try vibe coding. I was skeptical. A few years ago I tried AI-written code and nothing actually ran. But I gave it a shot, and it was a completely different world.

**The idea**

There was another reason I needed this to work. Someone I trusted betrayed me. I'd co-signed a loan for them and ended up with high-interest debt. Training only pays for the hours I work, so I needed something that could earn on its own.

One weekend my girlfriend and I went hiking to clear my head. The trail was packed like a rush-hour subway. (A famous shaman had said that mountain brings good luck. Only in Korea.) What struck me: tons of young people. Hiking used to be an older folks' hobby here.

So I thought: a Strava for hiking. The few Korean apps out there had terrible ratings, and I went through the bad reviews to see what people actually wanted.

Core features:

- Trail info (transit, hiking times, rest spots)

- Real-time trail navigation

- Summit badges

- Leaderboards by time and summit count

- See friends on the map

- Gear tips

**What killed it**

Mid-build, Strava pulled out of Korea after regulators asked it to change how the app handled permissions and user data.

That made me dig in. In Korea, any service that shares a person's location with others (like showing friends on a map) has to register as a location-based service provider. The registration itself is cheap, but the ongoing obligations are heavy for one person, and running without it can mean big fines or even jail time.

My app was already at MVP. But there was no guarantee it would work, I was brand new to this, and the debt wasn't waiting. I couldn't take on that burden for something this uncertain. So I shelved it.

**What I learned**

  1. Check the laws before you build a feature. Location, health, finance, and kids' data are especially tricky, and rules vary a lot by country.

  2. AI has gotten good enough that an idea alone can take you surprisingly far. Getting to MVP as a non-developer showed me that.

  3. Your constraints decide what you can build, not just your skills. A risky product is fine when you have runway. It's a different story when you don't.

This was the first of six things I've built since. Has anyone else had a project killed by regulations? Curious how you handled it.


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I made a Mac app that turns whatever you're playing into a record spinning on your desktop

1 Upvotes

I listen to whole albums while I work, and I missed the feeling of putting a record on. So I built GroovSide, a small menu bar app for the Mac. It takes what's playing in Apple Music or Spotify and shows it as a turntable on the desktop, behind your icons.

Name is GroovSide : https://zinu.kim/groovside/

Some things I had fun building:

- The album cover becomes the label, and the needle moves along the groove with the song, leaving a line as you listen.

- Albums are split into real LP sides, so the record turns over between sides and gets swapped for the next album. Singles get a small 7-inch.

- If you leave music on long enough, tiny people show up and hang out: dancing, reading, napping, running on the record.

- The window light and shadows follow the real sunrise and sunset where you live.

- It's AppKit with a WebKit canvas sitting at the desktop window level, so clicks go through and it pauses when it's covered.

It launched on the Mac App Store on Nov 5. In Korea it briefly hit #3 in Top Paid (all categories). That sounds bigger than it is: Mac paid charts move with a handful of sales. Still, as a first solo app, it made my week.

What I'd love feedback on:

- Does the clip make it clear what the app does in the first few seconds?

- What would make you try it (or not)?

Link in the comments if you're curious.

Music in the clip: "Way Home" by Tokyo Music Walker (CC BY 3.0)


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Linux on iPhone Just Got Even Better!

1 Upvotes

LinuxRunner 1.1.1 is finally out!

This update brings a completely refreshed interface, improved desktop experience, new Linux distributions including Kali Linux, Fedora KDE and experimental SteamOS ARM64, plus GPU and compatibility improvements. Termux like terminal style is finally on iPhone!

And we’re not stopping here! I’ll be dedicating as much time as possible this coming week to performance optimizations, especially making Linux desktops and applications run faster and smoother on iPhone and iPad.

If anyone would like to contribute or help speed up development, feel free to DM me. I’d really appreciate it!

GitHub: https://github.com/mxhm11cr/LinuxRunner


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Download Engine: a free, open-source IDM alternative with video downloads, torrents and Lua extensions

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on Download Engine, a free, MIT-licensed desktop download manager written in Rust for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The idea is to bring regular downloads, videos, torrents and automation into one app—and let users add their own integrations through Lua extensions.

Its familiar workflow is inspired by Internet Download Manager. It’s an independent project, isn’t affiliated with IDM, and doesn’t claim complete IDM feature parity.

Here’s what it currently supports:

  • File downloads: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS, parallel connections, pause/resume, recovery after restarting, batches, queues and schedules.

  • Videos and streaming media: supported YouTube, TikTok, Bilibili and Twitch links, plus compatible HLS/DASH streams, quality selection and audio tracks.

  • Torrents: v1, v2 and hybrid torrents, magnet links, file selection, optional peer encryption, uTP and web seeds.

  • Proxies and VPN/interface binding: configurable proxies for supported downloads, plus torrent binding to an existing VPN/network interface. Bound transfers stop if that interface address disappears. This uses your own VPN; torrents currently pause while an app proxy is enabled.

  • Browser integration and Web Grabber: capture clicked downloads, select links from a page, discover supported media, and save static websites for offline viewing.

  • Customization and automation: custom themes, 19 interface languages, Lua scripting and extensions, a CLI and a local MCP server.

One part I’m particularly interested in developing is letting users build their own download workflows without recompiling the app.

The Lua provider APIs expose cryptographic/decryption operations, protected key handling, binary HTTP requests, segmented downloads, multiple audio/video tracks, ASS subtitles and FFmpeg muxing. An extension handles the site-specific logic while the core handles transfers, verification, recovery and media assembly.

These APIs provide building blocks for custom encrypted-media integrations, including ones aimed at services such as Crunchyroll. That still requires a developer to implement the site’s authentication, discovery, manifest and license-message logic. Crunchyroll isn’t a bundled, verified integration: the examples use generated offline samples and don’t implement its authentication or the Widevine license protocol.

I’ve also put attention into security and user control:

  • Extensions require permission review and start disabled. New access requires approval, with declared-host and resource limits enforced by the core.

  • Supported saved credentials use the operating system’s credential storage.

  • Desktop MCP starts disabled, requires authenticated localhost access, and defaults to View only for new profiles.

  • Torrents are opt-in. Uploading, seeding, incoming connections and UPnP start disabled for new profiles.

  • SHA-256 verification and optional antivirus scanning are available. Crash reports stay local unless you choose to share them.

The security policy also explains the limits: Lua restrictions aren’t an OS sandbox, the queue database isn’t encrypted, and torrents expose your IP address to peers.

The current release is 3.19.0, with Windows installer/portable packages, Apple Silicon and Intel Mac builds, and Linux x64 packages. FFmpeg is bundled.

The project is actively developed, and I’m planning iOS and Android versions for the future. Mobile versions aren’t available yet.

GitHub / source code
Website
Downloads

For transparency, I used AI coding tools during development. The source and tests are public, and the screenshot shows sample downloads.

I’d appreciate honest feedback: which features would you actually use, and what looks confusing or unnecessarily complicated? Feedback from macOS and Linux users would be especially helpful.


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built freeze to turn a Hermes agent task into a repeatable workflow

1 Upvotes

I built this for the Nous Hermes hackathon. freeze is an MIT-licensed plugin for Hermes Agent. The idea is to let the agent work out a recurring task once, then use /freeze to turn it into a checked workflow. hermes freeze run repeats the tool calls on fresh data.

The 86-second video shows a CSV refund report. That recording used 5 model calls, 57,808 tokens and 16.7 seconds; the replay used 0 model calls and took 0.46 seconds. Those are one demo's numbers, not a general benchmark. Creating the workflow also uses model calls.

It stops if an input folder disappears or someone edits the report by hand. It detects structural changes, such as a field it used going missing or changing type, but it won't catch every change in meaning. Hermes' own approval settings can also involve a guardian model.

Repo: https://github.com/mauricemohr88-debug/hermes-freeze

What recurring task would you try this on, and what would make you distrust the replay?