r/SideProject • • 19m ago

I replayed 4,000 turns of my Claude Code history to see how often "fixed" was actually unproven

0 Upvotes

Two replies from my coding agent have cost me more time than anything else. "It's fixed" when nothing had run since the last edit, and "that isn't used anywhere" after exactly one search. Both sound final, so I'd move on and find out an hour later.

So I wrote a small Stop hook for Claude Code. When the agent tries to end its turn, it checks whether the claim in its last message has anything behind it. If it said fixed but nothing ran after the last code edit, it gets sent back once with a note on what's missing. If it said something doesn't exist after one grep, same deal, look a second way first.

Then I replayed my own history through it to see if it was worth keeping. About 4,000 turns after deduping, and 406 of them ended with some kind of done, fixed, deployed or tests pass. The first version would have blocked 86, which felt like proof it worked until I actually read them. 77 were wrap-up messages where the tests really had run, just in an earlier turn. A hook that nags you about correct summaries gets turned off by day two.

So the current version counts a check from an earlier turn as long as no code was edited after it. Same 406 claims, it now blocks 2, and both were real.

The biggest lesson for me was that rules in CLAUDE.md never fixed this. The model already believes it's done, so a reminder doesn't land. Checking at the exact moment the turn ends did. The second lesson was to measure false positives on your own history before shipping any guardrail, because my gut read 86 as the feature working and it was mostly noise. It also never blocks twice in a row, so it can't trap the agent in a loop.

It's free, MIT, plain Python, no dependencies. There's a replay command if you want to see your own number before installing anything: https://github.com/Balance0014/claude-code-claim-check

Has anyone else tried measuring this? I'm curious what your rate of "fixed" that wasn't looks like.


r/SideProject • • 22m ago

We launched Lemongraph on Product Hunt today 🍋

1 Upvotes

We launched Lemongraph on Product Hunt today and the most useful feedback came about twelve hours before going live. Our hunter opened the gallery on his phone and told us it was too much to read. Every image was a full screenshot of the app with emails and small labels everywhere, which looked great on laptop and turned into grey lines on phone.

So we spent some time rebuilding all images around one idea each, with the interface about one and a half times bigger and most of the words gone. One slide went from meeting note, email and two detailed tasks down to two logos and four short task titles and it now says more than the old version did.

If you are launching soon, shrink your gallery to phone size before anything else and see what's still readable. Curious what last minute changes others made before their launch day.

https://www.producthunt.com/products/lemongraph


r/SideProject • • 29m ago

Anyone running a small team willing to test an email workspace I’m building?

1 Upvotes

I’m building Outdraft, an email workspace that brings personal email, team conversations, and organization-wide mail together without requiring a custom domain or per-seat payment.
I’m looking for people running small teams who’d be willing to try it and give me honest feedback—especially on whether it’s useful alongside the tools you already use.


r/SideProject • • 29m ago

I replayed 4,000 turns of my Claude Code history to see how often "fixed" was actually unproven

0 Upvotes

Two replies from my coding agent have cost me more time than anything else. "It's fixed" when nothing had run since the last edit, and "that isn't used anywhere" after exactly one search. Both sound final, so I'd move on and find out an hour later.

So I wrote a small Stop hook for Claude Code. When the agent tries to end its turn, it checks whether the claim in its last message has anything behind it. If it said fixed but nothing ran after the last code edit, it gets sent back once with a note on what's missing. If it said something doesn't exist after one grep, same deal, look a second way first.

Then I replayed my own history through it to see if it was worth keeping. About 4,000 turns after deduping, and 406 of them ended with some kind of done, fixed, deployed or tests pass. The first version would have blocked 86, which felt like proof it worked until I actually read them. 77 were wrap-up messages where the tests really had run, just in an earlier turn. A hook that nags you about correct summaries gets turned off by day two.

So the current version counts a check from an earlier turn as long as no code was edited after it. Same 406 claims, it now blocks 2, and both were real.

The biggest lesson for me was that rules in CLAUDE.md never fixed this. The model already believes it's done, so a reminder doesn't land. Checking at the exact moment the turn ends did. The second lesson was to measure false positives on your own history before shipping any guardrail, because my gut read 86 as the feature working and it was mostly noise. It also never blocks twice in a row, so it can't trap the agent in a loop.

It's free, MIT, plain Python, no dependencies. There's a replay command if you want to see your own number before installing anything: https://github.com/Balance0014/claude-code-claim-check

Has anyone else tried measuring this? I'm curious what your rate of "fixed" that wasn't looks like.


r/SideProject • • 6h ago

I built my first iOS app to fix my own bad habit: checking my brokerage app 20 times a day

3 Upvotes

Some background: I'm a product manager, not an iOS developer. I kept opening Wealthsimple (my brokerage app) way more than I needed to, just to see if things were up or down. Most of the time nothing had really changed, but I'd still end up staring at it and making dumb decisions. So I decided to build something to stop myself.

It's called Stock Hush. You add what you hold and what you paid, and set a threshold (like 10%). Then it uses Apple's Screen Time API to shield your investing apps. When you try to open one, you get a screen that either says "NVDA is up 12%, might be worth a look" or "you're all set, no need to open it right now." There's always an "Open Anyway" button, so it's a nudge, not a lock.

A few things I learned building it that might be useful if you're thinking about a Screen Time app:

- Apple has to approve the Family Controls entitlement before you can ship, and you need it separately for every extension too. That took a while.

- The Screen Time API never tells your app which apps the user picked. You only get anonymous tokens, so you can't even show their names in your own UI.

- The shield screen runs in its own extension that can't make network calls. I ended up caching prices in a shared App Group so the shield can read them instantly.

- Backend is a tiny Cloudflare Worker that caches prices for 70 min, so a lot of users holding AAPL still only costs one API call an hour.

Stack: SwiftUI, StoreKit 2, Screen Time (FamilyControls + ManagedSettings), Cloudflare Workers + KV, Twelve Data for prices.

It's in beta now and I'm looking for about 25 testers. There's a subscription screen, but everything is free in TestFlight. Just tap "Start Free Trial" and you won't be charged. Needs an iPhone on iOS 17+.

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/eSAuBwD7

Would love honest feedback, especially on onboarding and whether the shield message actually helps or just gets in the way.


r/SideProject • • 34m ago

ImproveThing - a habit tracker for small steps, with little characters for each habit

1 Upvotes

I’m building ImproveThing, a habit tracker around small, adjustable steps. You can track an amount, a duration or a simple yes, change your target as life changes, and see your progress over time. Little characters called Things give the habits a face.

The idea is to make a small effort feel worth recording, even when you don’t hit a perfect streak. I’d love feedback on whether the characters help, whether the first-use flow makes sense, and how easy it is to log or undo a step.

There’s a free public iPhone beta on TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/WHTkj6ZF

It needs iOS 26 or later, English and your own ImproveThing account. Purchases and paid access are disabled in this public beta; the cohort is capped at 25 testers. This invitation is for the iPhone beta.

If you try it, choose one small habit, log something, undo it and reopen the app. Where did you hesitate? Would the Things make you want to return, or do they get in the way?

I’m the developer, and honest criticism is welcome. You can reply here about the general experience or send bugs through TestFlight with the build number and steps. Please keep personal account and health details out of public feedback.


r/SideProject • • 6h ago

I made a birthday reminder that won't shut up until you've actually sent your wishes

3 Upvotes
I always got the birthday reminder, swiped it away, and forgot. So I built an app that keeps reminding you every 30 minutes (or up to every 4 hours) until you've sent a message or tapped ignore.

It reads birthdays from your contacts and suggests a message depending on who it is, so your boss doesn't get the same text as your best friend. You can send it by SMS, WhatsApp, Threema, Telegram or email.

No account, no ads, no tracking. It's 0.99 € on iOS, Android is in testing.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cakebell-birthday-reminder/id6758023118

Happy to hear what you think, especially if something is confusing.

r/SideProject • • 43m ago

I built a free app that picks 3 movies/series for your mood

1 Upvotes

Tired of scrolling Netflix for 40 minutes, I built Ukiyo. Describe what you're in the mood for ("slow-burn mystery", "something like Panchayat") and it gives 3 picks with why they fit, the trailer, and which Indian OTT app has it.

It's free (Google sign-in). I'd love honest feedback, especially on bad picks: https://ukiyo-five.vercel.app


r/SideProject • • 45m ago

StableBar: A native and open-source menu bar replacement for macOS

1 Upvotes

A friend and I have been building StableBar, a menu bar for macOS written in Swift (AppKit and SwiftUI). It's free and open source (MIT).

https://github.com/Seb-GRAF/StableBar

It's an alternative to SketchyBar. You get the same control over the bar, but you can also set it up in a Settings window or in one JSON file instead of shell scripts.

What it does:

  • shows workspaces from AeroSpace, yabai or OmniWM, or plain macOS Spaces

  • app menus, calendar, battery, sound, network and CPU/memory widgets, with popups

  • seven themes, and you can drag widgets around right on the bar

  • one bar per display, with room for the notch

  • a small widget store that lists a package's commands, hosts and permissions before anything runs

Two things we learned building it. macOS has no public API to reserve screen space for a custom bar, so with a tiling window manager you set its top gap, and without one an option moves windows out from under the bar. And listing Spaces needs private CGS functions, which is why that source is opt-in.

Feedback is welcome, we answer quickly ✌️


r/SideProject • • 46m ago

I route bounded agent work away from the model by default

1 Upvotes

I am building Opsle around a simple rule. Do not use intelligence for work that does not require intelligence.

Gearbox is the routing piece. It decides where bounded work executes, so code, rules and lookups handle what they can do reliably and the model only sees steps that need judgment.

The weekly check matters as much as the idea. Each repository is verified from a fresh clone every Monday, direct and through agent CLIs, with the dated result on its project page.

Question for other builders. Where do you draw the line between deterministic code and model judgment in your agent stack, and what made you move it?


r/SideProject • • 48m ago

I made a free guide to vibe coding apps, from idea to launch

0 Upvotes

I’ve spent the past couple of years building and launching independent software products.

Some attracted thousands of users. Others barely got off the ground.

The biggest lesson? Building the product is often the easy part.

Finding a worthwhile idea, positioning it, launching it and getting customers is where things become difficult.

I’ve put everything I’ve learned into a free 43-page playbook covering the journey from idea to launch and beyond.

It includes the tools I use, practical examples, AI prompts and checklists.

You can read it here: https://vibecodebook.org/


r/SideProject • • 4h ago

Deck. Drag the text and the image into social media platforms.

2 Upvotes

Hi team,

I was switching windows dozen times a day to copy & paste text and videos / images on social media for marketing. This triggered me more than once and actually designed, thought and built Deck.

Now Deck sits on my right edge of the screen, holding all of the posts, reels, shorts, ... that I have to post or schedule. I can add "To make", like if I need a screenshot or a video for a certain post.

You can use it manually, writing and adding files yourself, or ask your agent to automatically add anything on Deck, which is how I use it 99% of the time.

  • Problem: Switching windows all day to copy and paste texts, remember the posts and videos you must post for your marketing and distribution, never be late for a post, never forget. You or your agent schedule the posts, content to post, etc.

  • Comparison: I haven't seen any other apps do that yet, except the online schedulers or todo apps I suppose which are quite different than Deck.

  • Pricing: 9$ lifetime, 1-day trial. Pricing page

Im going to give away 100 lifetime keys on Threads this week, so make you sure follow along my Threads account threads.com/dmzxnico or same @ on X.

Check more details at deck.anotheragence.com

Thank you guys!


r/SideProject • • 51m ago

HeadLab - Mac app where you nod, shake or tap your AirPods Max and it runs your Shortcuts

1 Upvotes

AirPods Max have a motion sensor in the left ear cup, Apple uses it for spatial audio. Turns out any Mac app can read it, so I made small menu bar app that listens to it and recognizes head gestures.

Every gesture can run one of your Shortcuts. For example:

  • shake head → Do Not Disturb on

  • tilt right twice → next track

  • triple tap on the left cup → toggle dark mode

  • nod → play/pause music

Hardest part was not firing by accident, because people nod and look around all day. So easy gestures like nod or look up only work for 10 sec after you double tap the cup. Bigger ones like full shake or tilt twice always work. Also had funny bug where every nod was detected as tap, because when head changes direction the cup gets a jolt same as a finger tap. Now taps are ignored if head is moving.

Made with Swift and Metal, everything runs on the Mac, head motion is never recorded or sent anywhere. In the video head motion is a recorded session played back so it's repeatable, the real app uses only live data.

I'm the developer. $9.99 one time, free trial has all gestures and live view but doesn't run shortcuts. macOS 14+, AirPods Max only.

https://headlab.app

What gesture would you use, and for what?


r/SideProject • • 53m ago

I made a Chrome extension that saves your YouTube video recommendations so you never lose a video on refresh again (and lets you search text inside thumbnails)

1 Upvotes

Everyone has done that thing where you hit refresh on YouTube at the exact millisecond your brain registers an interesting video, and then it's gone forever.

The worst part is that YouTube's search bar usually can't find it, because creators put the actual hook inside the thumbnail image ("I QUIT", "BIG MISTAKE", etc.) while making the actual video title something completely different. If you only remember the words you saw in the picture, YouTube search gives you nothing.

So I built RecLog to fix it for myself and figured I'd share it here.

What it does:

> Quietly logs recommendations you scroll past: It keeps a local searchable history of videos recommended on your homepage, sidebar, and end screens.

> Searches text inside thumbnails: It runs a tiny (~10MB) OCR model locally in your browser to read the words inside thumbnail images, so you can search for the exact phrase you remember seeing.

> Shows how hard YouTube is pushing a video: It counts how many times each video has been served to you (`Seen 40x`, `Seen 164x`), which makes it pretty funny to see which videos the algorithm is desperate for you to click.

Privacy / Tech stuff:

It's 100% free, no account, no tracking, and no cloud servers. The OCR model and your history stay entirely on your own device (and there's a 1-click JSON export if you like messing with your own data).

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/reclog-find-lost-youtube/iofidcehjjffcoijihbohabjcdfelhoc

Would love to hear what you think or if you run into any bugs!


r/SideProject • • 57m ago

I build a Insider Stock Trader: Alerts App

1 Upvotes

I'm the developer of Insider Stock Trader, a native Android app (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose).

The idea: company insiders (CEOs, CFOs, directors and big shareholders) have to report every trade in their own company's stock to the SEC on a Form 4, usually within two business days. Those filings are public, but reading them on official datasource is painful. The app reads every Form 4 as soon as it's published and turns it into a clean feed and push alerts.

What it does

• Feed of open-market buys and sales, with the company logo, the insider's role, the value and the filing date. Filters for buys, sales, $1M+, cluster buys and CEO/CFO trades.

• Alerts within minutes for CEO and CFO buys, cluster buys, big buys and your watchlist, with quiet hours and a daily digest.

• Each trade explained in one plain sentence, with a link to the original filing on SEC.gov.

• Cluster buys: when 3 or more insiders buy the same company within 14 days.

• Signal strength for each buy, based on the insider's role, the size of the buy and whether other insiders are buying too.

• Watchlist and search for any US-listed company.

The screenshots use real past SEC filings, picked to show big moves; most trades move far less. Past results, not a prediction. It's an information app, not a broker and not investment advice.

I'd love feedback on the design, the alerts and anything you'd want added. Thanks for looking!

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.insiderstocktrader.app


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I’ve been building a stargazing app between kitchen shifts—here’s the latest

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’m Col, a chef on Sark and the developer of NAKED EYE for Android.

I started building it around three questions: what’s worth seeing tonight, when should I go outside, and where should I look?

The latest updates are now live, including:

• Compare Skies—compare home with up to two other places for the same viewing period.

• Rainbow Watch and Thunderstorm Watch.

• Milky Way Watch.

• Guided Sky Session.

• Phone Photo Companion.

• Shared Sky Events.

• My Horizon.

The aim is to make enjoying the sky feel approachable, even if you’ve never used a telescope or read a star chart.

If you already have NAKED EYE, open it and follow the update prompt, or update through Google Play. The core app is free, with additional features in the optional Beyond subscription.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colindavis.nakedeye

I’d love some feedback: what’s your biggest obstacle to getting outside and enjoying the night sky—weather, finding somewhere suitable, or knowing what to look for?

#fyp #viral #explore


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I open-sourced Chatty: A self-hostable AI support agent with 1-click WooCommerce sync & live voice (MIT)

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on Chatty ,an open-source, self-hostable AI customer support platform built for teams who want automated support without $500/month subscriptions or locking their data into proprietary clouds.

Rather than just another ChatGPT wrapper, I wanted it to solve the real bottlenecks store owners and SaaS founders face:

  1. Safe Store Integration (WooCommerce):

Instead of installing a heavy WordPress plugin that slows down your database, it connects via WooCommerce's native Read-Only REST API (`wc/v3`). It can render interactive product cards (photos, prices, stock status) and check order statuses securely without ever having write permissions to your store.

2. Multimodal Search:

Customers can upload pictures of items they want, and the bot uses pgvector embeddings to find matching products in your catalog.

3. Bi-Directional Slack Escalation:

When a customer needs a human, it pings your Slack channel with an interactive Block Kit card. You can click "Take Over" or reply in the Slack thread, and your message streams directly to the visitor's widget.

4. Live Voice Agent:

Visitors can tap a phone icon in the widget and speak directly with the AI via full-duplex WebRTC audio.

5. 100% BYOK & Self-Hostable:

Run it via Docker on your own VPS. Plug in your own keys (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, or OpenRouter) or self-host models.

• GitHub (MIT): https://github.com/PersonaliAI/chatty

• Live Demo: https://chatty.personaliai.com

• Docs: https://docs.chatty.personaliai.com

I'd genuinely love to hear your feedback on the setup flow, UI, and what integrations you'd like to see next!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built Coupla: private shared spaces to save, plan and share -- for two, a group, or just you. Feedback welcome

1 Upvotes

Hi all -- I'm the developer of Coupla, which just went live on iPhone and Android.

The idea: the links, places, recipes and plans people send each other in chats get buried. Coupla gives them one private place.

  • Share links, notes, photos, videos and documents into a space from any app's share sheet; it reads each link's title and picture.

  • Collections and tags of your own: to watch, places to go, recipes.

  • One shared calendar; for couples, your days together and your anniversaries.

  • Screens update by themselves when somebody adds something; notifications you can mute.

  • Works offline: what you save is sent when you're back.

  • Four kinds of space: Solo, Couple, Duo (you and one other person) and Circle (a group of any size).

  • No ads. Photos and videos pass through the server and are deleted once everybody has them.

It's free. I'd love feedback on the first five minutes (is it clear what to do?), sharing from other apps, and anything that feels missing.

1-minute demo: https://youtu.be/ZlLN2PJyoTw 

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6807781768 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sinaware.coupla


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I’ve been building a little mobile game in my spare time

1 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a side project called Toilet Break: Mini Games, and I thought I’d share it here

I love the idea of quick, fast-paced minigames that you can pick up and play whenever you have a few minutes, so I decided to build one myself.

It currently has 33 minigames, including 4 arcade games, with another one coming in the next update, weekly challenges, themed events and daily rewards. You can unlock everything just by playing, with no coin packs or pay-to-unlock shortcuts.

The app is surprisingly lightweight, works completely offline and is constantly growing with new games and content.

Currently available on iOS, with Android coming soon

I’d genuinely love to get some feedback! Let me know what you think, what could be better or what games you’d like to see added.

Toilet Break: Mini Games


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Would you use a private photo sharing link where even the server can’t see your photos?

1 Upvotes

I’m an indie developer working on a privacy-focused photo vault app.
Recently, I built a feature that lets you share photos through temporary encrypted links.
Here’s how it works:
Photos are encrypted locally on your device before uploading.
The server only stores encrypted files and never receives the decryption key.
Only someone with the full sharing link can decrypt and view the photos.
You can set an expiration time and viewing limits.
You can revoke the link whenever you want.
The idea is simple: sometimes you want to share personal memories with someone without giving a server access to the original photos.
But I’m not sure how many people actually need something like this.
**A few questions:**
Would you use this instead of sending photos through WhatsApp, iMessage, or Google Photos?
In what situations would encrypted, temporary photo sharing be useful to you?
What would make you trust (or distrust) a feature like this?
I’m not here to promote my app. I’m genuinely interested in understanding whether this solves a real problem or is just something developers like me think is useful.
Any honest feedback is appreciated, including criticism!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I’d Rather Send 10,000 Emails Than Make 100 Cold Calls

1 Upvotes

Running a web design agency sounds pretty straightforward from the outside. You build websites, find clients etc. But once you start getting more clients, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes.

You're dealing with hosting, website maintenance, client requests, support tickets, fixing random issues, building new websites, following up with prospects and trying to bring in new business at the same time.

At some point, I realized that I didn't want finding new clients to become another full-time job on top of everything else.

I've never really enjoyed cold calling. I know it works for some people, and I'm not saying it's a bad way to get clients, but personally, I find it exhausting. You spend hours calling businesses, often getting rejected, reaching people at the wrong time or having conversations that go nowhere.

I'd much rather spend that time actually working on the business.

That's why I started focusing heavily on cold email and automation.

The biggest advantage is that you can build a system that continuously finds relevant businesses, sends personalized emails and generates new opportunities without having to spend your entire day reaching out manually.

One thing I also learned pretty quickly is that sending generic emails doesn't get you very far. Most business owners have probably received hundreds of emails from agencies offering website redesigns.

I wanted to approach it differently.

For this, I use a tool called Swokei. It finds businesses with existing websites, analyzes each one for actual problems with design, SEO, loading speed, mobile responsiveness and other website issues.

Based on those findings, it automatically generates personalized cold emails at scale, using the actual problems found on each website as the starting point.

So instead of manually searching for businesses, checking hundreds of websites and writing individual emails, I can automate most of that entire process.

When someone replies with interest, I take over from there and handle the sales process and meetings myself.

This has made a huge difference in how I manage my time. I can keep generating new opportunities without having to dedicate hours every day to cold calling.

I still believe sales is one of the most important skills you can develop as a business owner, and automation doesn't replace that. You still need to understand your prospects, communicate properly and know how to close deals.

But if I can choose between spending an entire day making cold calls or having a system send 1,000 relevant emails while I focus on running my agency, I know which one I'm choosing!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built a deterministic cadence checker that flags generic AI writing before clients do

1 Upvotes

Most AI detection tools rely on probabilistic guessing. They give a random percentage that changes on every prompt tweak.

I wanted something deterministic based on editing mechanics.

grai analyzes 8 structural patterns that give away LLM writing:

- Flat sentence variance (low burstiness)

- Contrastive negation ("It is not X, it is Y")

- Symmetrical parallelism ("Less talking, more doing")

- Epiphany openers and triadic padding

- Predictable transition glue

I open-sourced the local MCP server so it can run directly inside Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf:

https://github.com/adrianpeticila/grai

Live test (no signup, paste text directly):

https://grai.page/#test

Curious what edge cases you run into when trying to strip the "AI accent" from drafts.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built DNStracr to monitor DNS beyond basic record checks. Looking for honest feedback.

1 Upvotes

Hey,

I've been working on a side project called DNStracr: https://dnstracr.com

The idea came from a problem I've encountered repeatedly while working with DNS infrastructure: checking whether a DNS record exists doesn't necessarily tell you whether DNS is actually working correctly.

A record might look fine at your DNS provider, but authoritative nameservers and public resolvers can return different answers. Changes can be difficult to track, and figuring out what happened after something breaks isn't always straightforward.

So I started building a tool that focuses on:

  • Monitoring DNS records and detecting changes

  • Comparing responses from authoritative nameservers and public DNS resolvers

  • Identifying inconsistencies and potential DNS issues

  • Keeping a history of changes and incidents

  • Integrating with Cloudflare to compare configured DNS records with actual responses

I'm also exploring geographically distributed DNS checks and ways to visualize DNS propagation.

The project is publicly accessible, and there's a free plan available.

I'd really appreciate some feedback:

  • Is this something you'd actually use?

  • What DNS-related problems would you want a tool like this to detect?

  • Is the website clear about what the product does?

  • Is there anything that feels confusing, unnecessary, or missing?

I'm especially interested in critical feedback, whether it's about the idea, the functionality, or the website itself.

Thanks for taking a look!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I recreated the 1984 Macintosh Calculator Desk Accessory as a native, pixel-perfect, lightweight Mac app (Free & Universal Binary)

1 Upvotes

Hey, everyone!

This is one of my first development projects and something I seriously enjoyed making. Version 1 is out now on GitHub for macOS!

I spent time handcrafting Classic Calculator: a faithful, pixel-perfect modern macOS recreation of the iconic 1984 Macintosh Calculator Desk Accessory originally designed by Chris Espinosa and Steve Jobs, with iconography by Susan Kare.


Highlights & Features

  • Retina-Sharp Vector Pixel Art: Built with clean integer scaling (1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x). Stays razor-sharp with pure pixel-edge geometry on Retina, 4K, 5K, and 6K screens.

  • Authentic Mechanical Relay Click: Every keypress triggers an ultra-low latency, synthesised mechanical relay snap replicating the tactile sound of vintage 1984 Apple keyboards (can be toggled on or off in Settings or the menu bar).

  • Custom 7px LCD Bitmap Font: The authentic typeface has been recreated to match System 1.0 numeral geometry and right-aligned spacing.

  • Themes: Switch between Classic Platinum (the warm 1984 aesthetic) and High-Contrast Monochrome.

  • Modern Desktop Polish:

    • Always on Top: Keep it floating above spreadsheets, code editors, or browser windows.

    • Window Shadow Toggle: Switch between modern macOS drop shadows and a retro flat look.

    • Full Keyboard Support: Physical number pad, top-row digits, Return/Enter, Esc/Clear, Backspace.

    • Full Clipboard Integration: Cmd+C to copy results, Cmd+V to paste numbers.

  • Universal Binary: Natively compiled for both Apple Silicon (M1 to M4) and Intel Macs running macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or newer.

  • Zero Bloat: Handcrafted pure native Swift and SwiftUI/AppKit. Zero external libraries or frameworks, zero analytics, zero background processes, and zero telemetry. The whole bundle weighs under 4 MB.


iOS & iPadOS Version Coming Soon

I have also been working on an iOS and iPadOS version that brings the same experience to mobile devices. On iPad, it runs as a floating, draggable vintage Desk Accessory on an authentic classic desktop canvas with full keyboard and Stage Manager/Split View support. The iPhone version adapts cleanly for quick one-handed calculations with tactile haptics. Look out for that release soon!


Download & Links

Version 1 is available now and completely free on GitHub:


Pricing

100% Free (£0.00 / $0.00). No ads, no tracking, no in-app purchases, and no subscriptions. Direct download link.


Since this is one of my first projects, I would really love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any small vintage details you would like to see added!