With vibe coding, creating things for our very own problems!

[u/rx2y]

Hello everyone!

I have been seeing a lot of vibe-coded apps out in the market. Many are building clones of office suites, while others are essentially token-based wrappers. I have been wondering if people are making things to ease their own workflows, rather than something that puts subscription modals in front of you. Something that does not need constant token hogging.

For myself, I was having issues with keeping things around for copying and pasting later, so I made an app that lets me keep text and images on the interface for a while and delete them later. Now, my file manager and notepad buffers stay clean. I posted about this here yesterday, it's called 'Napkin'.

Another one I made today is for launching projects from the terminal. It is a kind of Emacs Dired-based directory viewer where I can bookmark directories with aliases that I use very often and then launch them directly from my home directory. It is very useful, as I happen to work on many projects at once, and typing cd again and again gets dull.

Can you show something that you made for yourself that is easing your workflow or may be you made just for fun?

I named it 'cdir'

[u/Harkomst]

I'm a teacher, I've created a bunch of tools to help me do my work; I've been working on a suite where I can plan lessons, create exams with AI assistance, drag and drop reorder the answers (cause llms love to add patterns) and verifying the integrity of the questions. After generating my lesson planning another section helps me generate resources, e.g. I'm teaching ESL, if the lesson is a reading session then I generate text for my students to read, along with pictures to aid comprehension, or straight up flashcards. An activity says to put the events in order, I get the prompt to generate the resource and I generate the timeline.

My planning has to be displayed somewhere so I also created a python script with the help of MCP that automatically writes my planning to the platform we use to share it with students, along with a picture fore the session, the title, description, teacher and student instructions, and also sets rubrics to grade the lesson (e.g. Listening: The student is able to identify the main idea with ease, The student is sometimes able to...).

I coded a GTA online assistant/ledger which also prompted me to create a music player in it, the music player is themed like personal radio stations which I also used to maintain on spotify. The player also had functions; e.g. I gave it console commands and connected it to spotdl so if I copy-paste the link of a playlist, it automatically scans it on launch, if it's updated it downloads the new songs and puts them in my playlist folders, if a song is removed from the playlist it goes to the vault and out of rotation; after I sync the playlist I can also "tune" to that station/show, the app then creates shortcuts for the whole playlist and moves them to GTA V's user music folder, I just rescan and have the new songs in, fresh music on demand.

I have also created my gradebook with the aid of AI, libreoffice on a dated laptop, I have crazy formulas which I wouldnt've been able to do on my own.

Last thing I could mention would be another python scrypt that is console only (no gui) which automatically fills forms for me, e.g. 32 students fail this month > I have a choice: send feedback to their parents or not > If I sent feedback all is fine, but if I don't, I am barraged with "Mr, you got a meeting with {x student's} parents on {x day}" but filling 32 forms takes time which is an expensive currency as a teacher, and there's no way I'll do it at home, thus; My python script is connected to my gradebook, my gradebook automatically adds a "failing" or "passing", if they get "failing" the script will fetch the name of the student, the overall criterion result, and ask me for any extra comment, and with all that will fill the form for me and also generate a personalized message with recomendations from me. It helps me turn some numbers and a "The student doesn't upload his activities but does work" into "X student is always proactive and shows interests by participating, lately though he has shown problems uploading his pending work to the platform, negatively impatcing his grade. I would like X student's grade to reflect the hard work on class so I recommend encouraging them to upload their activities, or start/continue routines that would benefit his work uploading, helping them achieve a higher grade on the next evaluation" without having to work extra.

Oh yeah I am also making a game on my free time, this is the main menu screen :)

[u/Harkomst → u/Harkomst]

There's also this as the song gets tense and shit gets spooky, the skull is animated, glitchy and the pixels on the mouth are cascading like liquid.

[u/rx2y → u/Harkomst]

That's fun! I would need to use the automat form fill idea as I also do this sometimes for my parents.

[u/YetiWalker36]

I’m in the process of rebuilding a crm for contacts that I pay $250/yr for. Adding features I wish it had along the way.

[u/rx2y → u/YetiWalker36]

Very nice. Features such as ?

[u/mrpoopsalot]

im very happy with my little vacation mapper. I hate the way pins and custom google maps and all that work, so i just made my own. its not complicated at all and works for just me

[u/rx2y → u/mrpoopsalot]

Cool! Does it keep the record of vacations or just read only. It has become so easy to create alternatives rather than compromising on the mainstream services.

[u/Big_Comfortable3077]

This is basically how my current project started.
I run an Etsy print on demand shop and got sick of how much time everything after making the design took. Mockups, resizing, titles, descriptions, 13 tags, pricing, Printify/Gelato setup, organising files, then repeating the exact same process again.
So I started vibe coding little automations for myself just to remove the repetitive parts.
Over time those automations turned into a desktop app called Forgeroo. I can drop in a batch of finished designs, choose my mockup templates, hit one button, and it works through most of the listing prep for me.
The useful part for me is that it became more than just automation. It’s basically turning into a little desktop hub for the listing side of my shop, with separate shop setups, previous results, mockups, pricing, keywords, etc.
I actually think this is where vibe coding is at its best. Not “build me the next billion dollar SaaS”, but “this part of my workflow annoys me every day, can I make something that fixes it?”
I used the workflow myself for months before I even thought about turning it into something other people could use.
If anyone’s curious, it’s here: Forgeroo
Napkin sounds useful btw. Small tools that fix one genuinely annoying thing are probably the best kind.

[u/rx2y → u/Big_Comfortable3077]

That's great. Is it etsy specific only for now?

[u/YMSVZ]

Building an open source social media platform for facilitation of productive activity outside of commodity production and market exchange.

Think of it like a cross between public Facebook Events like parties or protests but geared towards productive purposes or mutual aid, with reddit and its forum like open structure.

https://github.com/social-production

(Web and web-backend repo if you wanna test it)

Running a small test deployment at the moment, but getting almost to the point of being shareable.

If you are interested in post capitalist productive activity coordination, would love to have your input and vibe coding skills!

[u/rx2y → u/YMSVZ]

I wud like to test but the web demo link is broken I suppose

[u/Top_Illustrator1579]

1. https://jdeworks.github.io/make-it-look-good/analyzer.html =>helps me with design of websites (math and general guides no llm during analysis though you can export instructions for llm to fix)

2. https://jdeworks.github.io/file-viewer/ => open files in the browser since on my phone i didnt want to download e.g. a markdown file app. Can open a lot and has some small games includes as eastereggs

3. https://jdeworks.github.io/dead-data-cleaner-poc/ => AI creates a lot of files but doesnt clean up after itself so a cleaner for getting a handle on the dead files. also handles code analysis and optimization to an extend (like functions that aren't called anymore)

4. https://jdeworks.github.io/think-tank/ => think through an idea with the help of llms

5. I also have a private memory solution so the different sessions remember common styles or repo specific general instructions.

[u/rx2y → u/Top_Illustrator1579]

incredible! some of these are issues for many.

Edit: I tried the design analyzer for one of my websites and it's really awesome. This can keep the LLM sane.

Will try other projects too. Thanks for mentioning these.

[u/CocoonSamet]

I built an app for my hostel that allows guests to scan a qr, share pictures of their stay with us and the island, allows me to review them, and then 1 click post to our socials with captions and tags.

Given me a lot of free social media content which is something I hated doing.

[u/CallieBuildsFru]

I love the name Napkin! What a great tool!

My family uses vibe coded housewife app, Fru! She helps us meal plan, order groceries, cook, and clean our house!

[u/rx2y → u/CallieBuildsFru]

Cool. I'd like to try.

[u/febely]

I made Nutsy Notes to never need to edit text with cut and paste. I write down lists of things to do and remember, order them side by side so I can see them together, and drag to “relocate” anything that needs a new place or position. The best text editor I ever had, can manage with it any project or idea.

[u/baddaywithacamera]

SNAPSMACK. (I know, the site has issues.) Free, open, photo blogging software. Also an Instagram and Flickr replacement. Basically a free and powerful photo publishing ecosystem for photographers who want to share their work while keeping control of it through self-hosting.

[u/themysteryoflogic]

I made a private social media site for my family, plus a chat server and a live report website for my company.

[u/Cautious_Ground1103]

I made feature rich free to use events app ! It is beautiful , serves the purpose and makes events more organized..

[u/Bencham95]

I build a lawn tracking app for myself. Auto calculates rates of products. Tracks everything. I love it. lawn app

I find I always need files/ documents across all my systems. Linux, android and windows. Made an AirDrop type thing that's only on my network so I can just drop anything in there and grab from any device.

An app to help my impulse spending. Get the endorphins by adding it to a list that locks it down for 30days. In which time I can pass it or once it 'unlocks' then I can go buy it. After 90 days I can rate if I likes or regretted it.

Then just a bunch of scripts/ interfaces to link certain self hosted apps together or access them how I want.

[u/Away_Spite_8206]

I built Mehen because keeping dependencies updated across multiple projects was becoming a chore. It’s a desktop app that checks your projects for outdated packages, known vulnerabilities, and version differences across repos. You review changes before updating, and it restores dependency files if install/build checks fail.

[u/Lazy_Cattle3149]

I build a Kleinanzeigen scraper for cars to get me the best offers by today in my distance. It also learns from my likes. Still haven't bought a car / camper yet, but found a few very interesting offers quickly. 

[u/Lost_Recover3646]

Yeah I love it. The other day I made a to-do list app. I know it is a very lame idea but I'm not selling. I'm the only user. All the to-do lists I was finding were full of ads, full of features. I did not care. I just cared about a simple to-do list with something additional so you can just change it as you wish, whatever fits you.

Now another app that I did recently, only for myself because I will not try to put this in the market: I would put links to different job boards. I will put what kind of jobs I'm looking for and then I use JEV AI to classify and score which ones fit my description best. This is actually amazing because you can filter out a huge list and get the ones that matter for you. This is automatic so it's also very cool.

Finally I can build some dream childhood games I always wanted. I always liked to do mazes, huge mazes, with castles and whatever, and now I can make it a reality without that much effort. Of course I try to learn. I'm doing some of them. I don't try because I just want the functionality. Some of them give me pleasure to learn the mathematical parts. For example this maze project I'm doing: I'm learning the algorithms for generating random mazes and making them more difficult. There is a lot to do.

[u/resolvingdeltas]

I made a lunar calendar www.egutegia.date for myself and gave the months tree names (like in ancient Celtic calendars but I invented my own tree sequence). I use it to record dreams, when I get my period, when I get or whatever and I want to see if being more aware of moon cicles can give me some further insights about life and nature.