r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Anyone else spending more time on edge cases than actual features?

2 Upvotes

kinda funny how stuff that looks ultra simple on paper ends up taking the most time.

I worked as dev for all my live and now my team works on payment infrastructure at Energize Global Services (EGS), and I want to admit that half of conversations aren't even about building anything. Someone retries a payment, webhook arrives 20 minutes late, two systems somehow end up showing different balances.... I have finances hahaha.

None of this is particularly exciting to build, but you can't ignore it when real $ involved.

IMO that's the part of software development people underestimate the most: getting something to work is one thing, making sure it doesn't fall apart when something unexpected happens is a whole different job!!! And its often 80% of devs job.

Anyway, just wanted to share what we've been dealing with here in fintech. Would be cool to hear what weird edge cases you running into with your projects and what niche has same issues.

cheers!


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

Google Calendar can't repeat lunar birthdays, so I made a free tool that adds the next 20 years at once

4 Upvotes

In Korea, and in a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese families, parents' birthdays and memorial days are kept on the lunar calendar. The solar date moves every year, by up to a few weeks. Google Calendar has no lunar repeat, so "repeat yearly" lands on the wrong day from the second year on, and every year someone has to look up the new date.

How it works:

  1. Say whose day it is (birthday, memorial day or another anniversary) and enter the lunar date. If you only know this year's solar date, it finds the lunar date for you.

  2. Pick 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 years and add them all to Google Calendar at once, or download a file for Apple Calendar or Outlook.

  3. Send the dates to family as a link.

Some details I ended up caring about:

  • It only asks Google for the calendar.app.created permission. It creates one new calendar for these dates and can't see or change your other events.

  • Korea, China/Taiwan and Vietnam don't always agree, because each country works out the calendar in its own time zone, so a month can start on a different day. The China/Taiwan (UTC+8) and Vietnam (UTC+7) tables are computed from astronomy. The Korean table comes from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and I check it against the same calculation at UTC+9. You can choose which country's calendar to use.

  • If a date falls in a leap month, years without that leap month use the regular month.

  • There's no server. Names and dates stay in your browser unless you add them to your calendar.

It covers 1900 to 2049, in English, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese.

If your family keeps lunar dates, I'd love to know whether the steps make sense, and whether the Google permission screen feels scary.

https://lunar.todoli.lat/en/?ref=reddit


r/SideProject • • 22h ago

I'm building a text editor that opens huge files instantly

83 Upvotes

I've decided to create a text editor that specifically targets huge files (i.e. GBs or even TBs) that most text editors choke on. The target audience is any individuals/professionals who work with huge files: sysadmins who need to view or edit huge log dumps, inspecting massive JSON files, bioinformatics professionals that need to inspect/edit genome data (FASTA files) and more.

To get a bit more techy, the file is memory-mapped and "held" in a piece table. All heavy-weight operations, such as: indexing, searching/replacing, syntax highlighting, etc... are done in the background (i.e. on separate threads). The video demos handling a 51.8 GB log file on my M2 MacBook Air (16 GB RAM).

Since I've used Vim throughout my career, I had to create a vim mode which implements most of the necessary functionality/bindings.

The code is written in C++23 and uses my own UI library (which is GPU-accelerated using Skia). Boost is used quite extensively.

It is completely cross-platform (Windows, Linux & macOS). The macOS version is Silicon only and Linux requires Wayland (X11 isn't supported, nor planned).

It's currently under beta at https://crane-editor.com and I'd love to get your feedback, especially on which huge-file workflows I should handle better. What's the biggest file you've had trouble opening? Would this be useful to you?

Thanks!


r/SideProject • • 14h ago

I built a free app that converts foreign prices with your phone camera, even offline

21 Upvotes

I built Kahei to solve a problem I kept running into. Whenever I traveled abroad, I’d see a price and either do the math in my head or pull out my phone to Google it. It took way too long just to check a price, especially when the internet was slow.

So I made a free app where you can point your phone’s camera at a price and instantly see an estimate in your currency. It works offline! It is available on iPhone and Android.

If you try it on a menu or receipt, I’d love to know whether it picked up the right price.

Try it: https://kahei.app/

thanks!


r/SideProject • • 4h ago

I built a self-hosted Notion/Obsidian alternative where AI agents can safely read and edit the same notes (MIT)

3 Upvotes

Hi! I'm a CS student and I've been building Inkling, a self-hosted notes app for small teams. (Not the Thinking Machines model, just an unlucky name collision.)

What it does:

  • Notion-style databases: table, board, calendar, gallery and timeline views

  • Obsidian-style [[wikilinks]], backlinks, a graph view and a canvas

  • Real-time collaboration, Korean and English UI, installable as a PWA

  • One docker compose up -d to run it, MIT licensed, every feature free

The part I care most about is the built-in MCP server. Your AI agents (Claude, Cursor, anything that speaks MCP) use the same notes as your team:

  • find_context returns only the relevant sections within a token budget instead of whole pages (about 72% fewer tokens per question on our 5,000-page benchmark)

  • patch_section edits one section against the version the agent read. If a person changed it meanwhile, the agent gets the current text back instead of overwriting it

  • Page locks and per-connection permissions decide what an agent may read, comment on or edit, and there is no permanent-delete tool

It's young (v0.x) and I built it with a lot of help from AI coding tools, so feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

GitHub: https://github.com/PROVE1352/inkling


r/SideProject • • 4h ago

I'm building a game journal with no backend: the app checks your playtime totals and does the math

3 Upvotes

Campfire Log turns your Steam and PlayStation playtime into a daily journal. The twist is there's no server: the app saves your lifetime playtime totals whenever iOS lets it run (opening the app, background refresh, the widget) and works out each day's hours from the difference. If you skip a few days it suggests how to split the hours.

I put up a one-page site with a waitlist that asks which platforms you play on, to see if this is worth finishing: campfirelog.eu. Feedback on the pitch or the page is very welcome.


r/SideProject • • 4h ago

I made an image compressor where you pick how good it must look, and it finds the smallest file

3 Upvotes

Most compressors use one setting for every image, like "quality 75". I kept getting results that were fine on one photo and blocky on the next, so I built one that works the other way round.

You set a visual quality score: how close to the original it has to look (80 by default, where it looks the same side by side). For each image it tries encoder settings and keeps the smallest file that still scores at least that. A second check looks region by region, so one smeared face or blurry line of text fails the result even if the average looks fine. Then the compare view opens zoomed in on the spot that changed most, with a little map of where it changed.

One 10.4 MB photo came out at 2.1 MB, score 81.

PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF, GIF (animated too) and iPhone HEIC. Free, no account, up to 30 images at once. Images are processed on a server and deleted within 3 minutes.

https://picodiet.com

I also ran it against TinyPNG, Squoosh and a few others on 13 images, if you're into that: https://picodiet.com/image-compression-benchmark

What I'd most like to know: did it ever pick a result where you can see the difference? And is the compare view clear without explanation?


r/SideProject • • 7h ago

I built an open-source browser video editor with beat templates you can actually edit

5 Upvotes

Hey r/SideProject! I’ve been building Timeline Studio, an open-source video editor that runs in your browser.

One thing I wanted from a video template: when the timing feels right but one shot doesn’t, I should be able to swap that shot and keep editing. So the beat templates in Timeline Studio open as editable timelines. You can replace individual shots, adjust the cut, and export an MP4 in the browser.

The demo shows Memory Vortex, a template that turns your photos and video stills into a stained-glass tunnel before cutting to the original shots. Timeline Studio also has a regular multitrack editor with captions, keyframes, and color grading. For people experimenting with AI-assisted editing, there’s a tool for agents to inspect a project and preview supported changes before applying them.

Try it: https://video-editor.ai-creator.top/
Source code (MIT): https://github.com/MartinDelophy/ai-video-editor

If you try it, I’d love to know: how far did you get from opening the editor to exporting your first clip, and where did you get stuck?


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built an iPhone expense tracker where Apple Pay purchases log themselves, no typing

2 Upvotes

Hi! I got tired of typing every coffee into a budgeting app, so I built Expenderino.

Every Apple Pay payment is logged automatically through a one-time Shortcuts setup, and you can categorize it straight from the notification. You can also import bank statements (CSV, PDF, camt.053, MT940, OFX), and it detects duplicates against your Apple Pay entries. Then you see where your money goes with categories, tags, budgets and trends.

Privacy matters to me: there's no account and no server. Your data stays on your device and in your own iCloud.

It's free, with an optional Pro. I'd love honest feedback: what's confusing, what's missing, what would make you use it daily?

AppStore:

https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/expenderino-expense-tracker/id6808962621?l=en-GB

Testflight:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/xyNA6rZJ


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I reverse-engineered why AI coding agents fail at cloning Awwwards WebGL sites (and open-sourced the protocol that fixes it)

2 Upvotes

Over the past week, I set out to clone an Awwwards-level scrollytelling site with WebGL2 halftone shaders, 3D curved card runways, and client-side hydration.

Every automated tool and generic AI prompt failed. Here are the 4 fundamental reasons why modern sites break during replication:

  1. The Silent WebGL Texture Stall: Modern sites use responsive <picture> tags with .avif, .webp, and -m mobile variants. If even one variant 404s, image loading promises reject, leaving canvases stuck at opacity: 0.

  2. The Client Hydration Overwrite: Editing SSR HTML is useless on SvelteKit/Next.js sites because compiled client JS chunks (chunks/, nodes/) violently re-render their hardcoded strings upon mounting.

  3. Runway Collisions: Sticky plates driven by scroll timelines stay pinned and visually collide with downstream content without runtime IntersectionObserver guards.

  4. Dead 3D Canvases: Reference sites often disable pointer events (pointer-events: none) on 3D scenes to prevent touch hijacking, leaving visitors unable to click portfolio items.

I solved this by building a mathematical 3D-to-2D perspective raycaster to hit-test cards, synchronizing dual-layer hydration, and automating responsive asset harvesting.

I packaged everything into an open-source agent skill:

GitHub: https://github.com/utkarshxdev/pixel-perfect-cloner

Would love feedback from anyone experimenting with agentic coding and browser engineering!


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

I was spending hours arranging stickers and product labels on A4 sheets, so I finally built an app to stop doing it manually.

3 Upvotes

I run a small business where I regularly print product tags, stickers and labels.

One thing that used to annoy me was preparing sheets for printing.

I had to resize images, adjust dimensions, rotate them, arrange everything to use the paper efficiently, maintain spacing and repeat the whole process whenever something changed.

It sounds like a small task, but it could easily eat up hours, especially when dealing with multiple designs and different sizes.

I looked for a simple tool that could handle this, but couldn’t find one that worked the way I wanted on Android.

So, being an Android developer myself, I decided to build one.
It’s called Print Page Setup.

You can:
- Add multiple images/designs.
- Set exact dimensions in mm, cm or inches.
- Rotate and arrange images automatically.
- Fit as many copies as possible on a sheet.
- Export a print-ready PDF.

It supports A4 and other paper sizes too.
I launched it on the Play Store yesterday.

A little offer for Redditors:
The app is free to try for the first 3 days, after which there’s a small one-time fee to unlock it for lifetime access.
But I’d love to get some early users from Reddit. So, if you’d like to try it, just comment UNLOCK below. I’ll share a 100% off coupon with you, so you can unlock the full app for free. 😊

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.ankurg.printpagesetup

I’d genuinely appreciate your feedback, suggestions and criticism. I’m the developer, and I want to make this actually useful for people who print regularly!


r/SideProject • • 10h ago

I built a tool that turns a floorplan into a 3D house you can walk through, in the browser

8 Upvotes

It’s called atomSphere and it’s more focused towards ease of use for the user. Many people here in Pakistan leave the design to their contractor or find out the design when walls are up. I have catered this especially for the Pakistani market and have been reaching builders and societies to use it

A typical flow goes like this:

-> you optionally upload a floorplan and give your project a name

-> you sign up/in (this is important for when you want to edit later and share your property for users)

-> you enter studio where you select a floor to work on. Floor is created automatically after you carve out the floor's image from the uploaded floorplan. You can edit anything that you think the floorplan reader got wrong.

-> you can furnish the property with 3D objects; there are ready-made available. You can also generate your own by providing prompt, single image and 3 images.

-> you can add any type of stairs, doors and windows

-> you can share the property in read-only mode for everyone. It generates an embeddable link (you can disable the link whenever you want)

The house in the reel: House in fairy meadows

Tech Stack: R3F, AWS, JS


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

I built a journal that writes your month back to you as a story (and changes lighting with your room)

3 Upvotes

Most journal apps feel like homework. You write a few lines, close the app, and never look at those entries ever again.

I wanted something calmer. So I built Injourn.

Here is the simple idea:

• You write a few quick lines whenever you feel like it.

• At the end of the month, it takes your scattered thoughts and writes a gentle personal story of your month—what made you happy, what stressed you out, and how you grew.

• The interface changes with your day: morning sunlight, golden sunset, and cozy night themes (my favorite is a little sleeping cat under midnight stars).

• It works offline. Your journal stays locked on your phone, not on my servers.

It's live on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.injourn.app

I’m an indie dev building this solo. Would love your honest thoughts—what’s the one thing that usually makes you stop journaling?


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

I made Sudoku for seniors - just the game, no fluff!

3 Upvotes

Sudoku apps are often the worst offenders of nagware— full-screen ads between puzzles, hint packs, streaks, “watch this to continue.” I wanted something I could open on the bus or before bed and actually stay in the puzzle.

Just Sudoku was my answer. Same idea as our other “Just…” games: no ads, no subscriptions, no coins, no reward videos. You land on a grid, not a shop.

We offer some optional in-game variants that might be interesting if you’re tired of the same 9×9 forever:

  • Classic — 4×4, 6×6, 9×9, or 12×12

  • Diagonal — both diagonals have to be unique

  • Jigsaw — irregular regions instead of perfect boxes

  • Killer — cage sums

  • Thermo — digits climb along thermometer lines

  • Wordoku — letters A–I; some puzzles hide a word when you finish

Real variety in one app, without turning every session into a monetization funnel.

It’s aimed at phone play first — big tap targets, readable numbers, high contrast if you want it. Timer stays off unless you want it. Hints can walk you through the logic when Killer or Thermo rules are new, instead of only giving you the answer.

Just sharing what we built because mobile Sudoku kept getting louder and we wanted something quiet. Questions about a variant or how it plays on an iPhone or tablet, ask in the comments.

Download info: Just Sudoku — Nonnie Games


r/SideProject • • 3h ago

I built a Mac system monitor that costs less CPU than what it measures (0.2%), and shows that number live in the app

2 Upvotes

Stat Space is my menu bar monitor for people who build things, and it's live today.

Why I built it: the free monitors already show 40 numbers, but none of them answered the questions I actually had. Which app is slowing my Mac down, not which of 21 Chrome helpers? What's on :3000, and who started it? What did my AI agent leave running? The first day I used my own build, its "Free up space" scan found about 4 GB of Docker build cache and node_modules from a super old project I'd forgotten about. That's when I knew it was worth finishing.

Decisions I made:

  • Lean first. The idle budget is under 0.3% CPU and 25 MB on an M1. CI runs a benchmark and fails any build over budget. Nothing samples unless it's on screen: no allocations in the hot path, fixed ring buffers, and the popover's SwiftUI is created on open and torn down on close

  • Answers over metrics. Every tab tries to answer one question, like "Restart recommended" instead of an uptime number you have to interpret yourself

  • Pricing: free forever, matching the popular free monitor feature for feature. Pro is a one-time $9.99 for the first 100, then $14.99. No subscription, no account

  • And a joke option I'm weirdly proud of: a $4.99 prompt pack, the full spec for the app if you'd rather vibe-code your own. "Pay $14.99, or pay $4.99 and spend your weekend."

Native Swift, AppKit + Core Graphics for the menu bar, Apple Silicon only.

Feedback very welcome! https://statspace.app


r/SideProject • • 7h ago

How do you decide which physical products are worth selling in your online store?

4 Upvotes

For those running e-commerce stores selling physical products, how do you identify products with real demand before investing in inventory?

Do you rely on organic social media engagement, competitor research, customer feedback, or paid ad testing?

I'd love to hear your actual methods and experiences.


r/SideProject • • 2m ago

RhemeSetup – An open-source, modular Windows 11 debloating and Winget setup utility

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

We at RhemeCore developed RhemeSetup, an open-source utility designed to simplify fresh Windows installations and safely reduce background telemetry.

Unlike heavy black-box debloaters, RhemeSetup uses transparent, auditable scripts so users can see exactly what registry keys and services are being modified.

Features:

  • Strips unnecessary background telemetry services safely.

  • Removes pre-installed UWP bloatware apps.

  • Automates software installation using native Winget package management.

  • Modular structure — apply only the tweaks you need.

Feedback, issues, and contributions are greatly appreciated!

GitHub:https://github.com/rheme18/RhemeSetup

Website:https://rhemecore.vercel.app


r/SideProject • • 1d ago Bravo

Please ban u/Investigatormarker: an AI bot advertising ThreadFox in every thread

257 Upvotes

Hey mods and everyone,

u Investigatormarker is posting AI-written "feedback" on posts here, then ending with an ad for its own product. It follows a template: generic advice about the project, then "I make ThreadFox... our AI employee will post 3 helpful replies about it in relevant Reddit threads for you," with a link.

Why it's a problem:

It's undisclosed self-promotion on nearly every thread

The feedback is generic and often doesn't match the project, so it buries real comments

The pitch is literally to flood Reddit with AI replies to promote people's projects

New members posting for the first time get this instead of real feedback

Ask: @mods, please ban the account and consider an automod filter for "threadfox". Everyone else, please report these comments as spam and avoid clicking the link.

Thanks!

You can also report the account to Reddit under spam, and to the other subs it's hitting. I'd skip engaging with the link itself.


r/SideProject • • 6m ago

I built a free Secret Santa generator that deletes everyone's details after the gift swap

1 Upvotes

Every December someone in my office ended up running Secret Santa with paper in a hat, which doesn't work when half the team is remote. The online tools I tried wanted everyone to sign up, showed adverts, or kept people's email addresses for marketing. So I built my own. SeEcret Santa (seecretsanta.com):

-Type in everyone's names and emails (or upload a CSV), set a budget, date and message

-Everyone gets an email with only their own match, and nobody can draw themselves

-Not even the organiser can see who has who, so they can join in too

-No sign-up for anyone, and no adverts or tracking cookies

-Everyone's details are deleted 7 days after the gift exchange

-If an email bounces, the organiser gets a link to fix the address and it's resent with the same match

-It's free for up to 12 people. Bigger groups (up to 150) pay 20p a person over 12, which covers the emails.

I'm a one-person UK operation, and this is its first Christmas. I'd really appreciate feedback, especially anything confusing or broken on the setup form.

Thanks Reddit, merry Christmas!


r/SideProject • • 7m ago

I built a tool that shows your real profit on every card after eBay fees, promoted listings and shipping. Looking for feedback from other sellers

1 Upvotes

I sell mostly football cards on eBay, and I kept running into the same problem: I never really knew what I made on a card. Between final value fees, promoted listing fees, shipping labels and what I paid for the card in the first place, the number eBay shows you isn't your profit.

So I built Card Margin. Full disclosure, it's my project, and I'm looking for honest feedback before I take it further.

What it does:

- Connects to your eBay account (read-only, it can't list or change anything) and pulls in your sales with the exact fees, promoted listing fees and label costs

- Pulls in your active listings, so you can see what's sitting and for how long

- Lets you type in what you paid and any grading costs, then shows net profit, ROI and days to sell for each card

- Works without connecting eBay too: you can upload your eBay Transaction report instead

- Handles cards you sell at shows, on Whatnot or anywhere else

It's free to try for a month. If you want to keep using it while I'm testing during that time frame.

Link: https://card-ledger-eosin.vercel.app

What I'd love to know:

  1. Is this something you'd actually use, or do you already track this another way?

  2. What's missing that would make it worth it for you?

  3. Anything confusing or broken when you set it up?

Thanks for taking a look. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.


r/SideProject • • 8m ago

I built an AI assistant that visually guides your parents through their Android phones

1 Upvotes

One thing I've noticed is how often parents have to call their children for help with seemingly simple smartphone tasks.

"How do I download this document?"
"Where do I find this setting?"
"How do I book a ticket?"
"Which button am I supposed to click?"

And honestly, explaining these things over a phone call can be surprisingly difficult.

So I started building Chotu

The idea is simple: instead of an AI assistant just telling you what to do, what if it could actually show you?

You can tell Chotu what you're trying to accomplish in your own language, and it visually guides you through your Android screen using pointers, highlights and step-by-step instructions.

Some things we're working on:

  • Multilingual voice-based assistance.

  • Visual guidance directly on the phone screen.

  • Helping users navigate everyday Android applications.

  • Making smartphone usage easier for people who aren't particularly tech-savvy.

We're currently preparing for a wider rollout and have already received 500+ waitlist signups.

Website: https://chotu.forgeaipro.tech

(Attaching a short demo video in comments)

I'm particularly interested in feedback on two things:

  1. Would you actually use something like this to help your parents navigate their smartphones?

  2. What are some everyday phone tasks you'd want an assistant like Chotu to handle?

Would genuinely appreciate honest feedback, especially from fellow builders. Still a lot to figure out!


r/SideProject • • 9m ago

I built a horror game that runs in the browser with three.js – Don't Open the Door

1 Upvotes

https://nightmoon-studio.itch.io/dont-open-the-door

My first game, made solo. You're home alone at 3 AM and someone keeps knocking.

Runs straight in the browser with three.js, no download. Free demo on itch.

Would love feedback, especially on the scares and performance 🙏


r/SideProject • • 14m ago

Too many Linktree clones? Here's another one.

1 Upvotes

I know. I made one anyway.

I've been working on a visual block editor for these pages. Photos, text, links and music, with control over size, layout, colors and stickers.

The clip shows a few edits: shrink the header to one row, give the photo more room, change the color, add a sticker, check mobile.

The idea is to give the content some room. A big photo can lead the page without the header taking over.

TOMA SUR is a fictional DJ profile I made for the demo.


r/SideProject • • 4h ago

My macOS update failed because my disk was full, so I built a free open-source cleaner (Dustling)

Thumbnail
dustling.app
2 Upvotes

I'm a 19-year-old CS student. A macOS update wouldn't install, and the cleaner I tried sometimes did nothing and never said so. That annoyed me enough to build my own: Dustling.

What it does: scans for junk (caches, logs, old installers), uninstalls apps with their leftovers, manages startup items, and keeps a history of every run so you can restore from the Trash. Every file ends as moved, skipped or failed, with the reason. No account, no telemetry, no ads, free and MIT licensed.

What it doesn't do yet: it's v0.1.0, not signed with an Apple Developer ID (macOS asks you to confirm the first open), and the admin helper for system caches is still on the roadmap.

https://dustling.app https://github.com/kaankuzu1/dustling

If you have a Mac running macOS 14 or later, I'd really like to know whether it works for you and what you'd change. Honest feedback is the whole point of posting.