I built an AI accountability app because I kept forgetting my side projects every weekend

Afnan A. — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:56:10 +0000

I work full-time.

Like many developers, I also want to build my own products, learn new tools, share what I build, and maybe turn one of those ideas into a real business someday.

But I kept running into the same problem every weekend.

Saturday would come, I would sit down to work, and the first question in my mind was always:

“What was I doing last weekend?”

I had ideas.
I had motivation.
I had the tools.

But I did not have continuity.

That is why I built AI Weekend Plan.

It is a small AI accountability app for people who build side projects mostly on weekends.

Live beta:
https://ai-weekend-plan.elements.red/

The problem

Most productivity tools assume you are consistent.

They assume you will open the app every day, check your tasks, update your progress, and follow the system.

But many side-project builders are not like that.

Some of us work full-time.
Some of us only get weekends.
Some of us lose energy during the week.
Some of us disappear from our own projects for 5 days and then try to restart on Saturday.

And when you come back after a gap, the real problem is not always laziness.

Sometimes the real problem is context loss.

You forget what you did.
You forget what you decided.
You forget what blocked you.
You forget why the idea felt exciting in the first place.

And when you lose context, you lose momentum.

Why normal todo apps did not solve it for me

A todo app can tell me:

“Build landing page.”

But usually it does not tell me:

why I wanted to build the landing page
what I learned last weekend
what decision I made
what blocked me
whether this project is still worth continuing
what small next step makes sense now

That was the gap for me.

I did not need another task list.

I needed something closer to a memory system for weekend builders.

The idea

The app follows a simple loop:

Plan → Act → Reflect → Lock → Continue

Before the weekend, the app helps you create a small plan.

After working, you come back and write what actually happened.

Then AI helps summarize:

what you completed
what you learned
what blocked you
what should continue next weekend

When the weekend is done, you lock it.

Each locked weekend becomes part of your journey chain.

So instead of your side project feeling like random disconnected weekends, it starts to feel like a visible journey.

The product

The current MVP is intentionally small.

It has two main authenticated pages:

Dashboard
Journey

The dashboard is where the user plans the weekend, reflects after work, talks with AI, and locks the weekend.

The journey page shows a chain of weekend cards.

Each card represents one weekend of progress.

For example:

Weekend 1: Started the idea
Weekend 2: Built the first prototype
Weekend 3: Shared it publicly
Weekend 4: Collected feedback

I avoided building a heavy productivity system.

No teams.
No complex calendar.
No advanced analytics.
No huge task manager.

Just a simple weekly accountability loop.

How the AI memory works

One important design decision was around memory.

I did not want to send the user’s full history to the AI every time.

That would become expensive, slow, and unnecessary.

Instead, the app keeps memory in layers:

current user profile
main goal
compressed journey summary
recent weekend reports
active project context
current user message

When the user asks for a new plan, the AI receives only the relevant context.

This way, Weekend 20 can still understand what started in Weekend 1 without sending every raw conversation again and again.

The goal is not to create a giant chat history.

The goal is to preserve useful context.

Tech stack

The MVP is built with:

Next.js
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Supabase
Google OAuth
AI provider abstraction
Bring-your-own-key API flow

Users can choose an AI provider/model and use their own API key.

Why bring your own API key?

Right now, the product is in free beta.

I have not added pricing yet.

So I started with a BYOK model because it keeps the platform simple and lets users control their own AI usage.

Later, I may add paid plans with hosted AI, reminders, public journey pages, and more advanced continuity features.

But for the beta, I wanted to keep the app simple and test whether the workflow is actually useful.

What I learned while building it

The biggest product insight for me was this:

People do not only need productivity. They need continuity.

Especially people who are building something slowly while living a normal life.

If someone disappears for a few days, the app should not make them feel guilty.

It should help them restart.

That changed the tone of the product.

Instead of saying:

“You failed.”

The app should say:

“Here is what happened. Here is what you learned. Here is the smallest useful next step.”

That is the kind of productivity tool I wanted for myself.

Less pressure.
More context.
More recovery.

What I need feedback on

The beta is live here:

https://ai-weekend-plan.elements.red/

I would really appreciate feedback, especially from developers, indie hackers, students, full-time workers, and anyone building side projects on weekends.

The main things I want to learn are:

Is the first planning flow useful?
Is the app too simple, or simple in a good way?
Does the journey chain feel motivating?
Is bring-your-own-key acceptable for beta?
Would you come back next weekend to continue?

Final thought

Not everyone can build every day.

Some people build slowly.

Some people build after work.

Some people build only on weekends.

And for those people, the hardest part is not always doing more.

Sometimes it is simply continuing from where they left off.

That is who I built AI Weekend Plan for.

DEV Community: Afnan A.