DEV Community: Ashutosh Swamy

I Built a Habit Tracker That Actually Made Me Want to Use It

Ashutosh Swamy — Thu, 21 May 2026 05:36:12 +0000

Most productivity apps I've tried have one thing in common: they're exhausting to look at.

Too many features. Too many tabs. Too many "just set up this workflow and you'll be productive in no time" promises. After a week I'd stop opening them, and then feel guilty every time I saw the app icon.

So I built Improve You — a ruthlessly minimal daily habit tracker with a built-in Pomodoro focus timer. No task lists. No project boards. Just your core habits and a timer to actually do the work.

Here's what I learned building it.

The Problem I Was Solving (For Myself)

I didn't want to track everything. I wanted to track the 5 things that, if I do them every single day, compound into a radically better version of me over a year.

Drink 2L water
Read 20 pages
Work out 45 minutes
2 hours of deep work
Whatever else matters to you

That's it. No backlog. No overdue tasks. Every morning the slate resets automatically, like a daily ledger. You either did the work or you didn't. No excuses.

The Features That Actually Mattered

1. Persistent Core Habits

Habits live at the identity level. You set them once, and they appear every morning without you doing anything. No creating a new "task" every day. The system respects that these habits are who you are, not items on a to-do list.

2. Deep Work Focus Mode

A fullscreen Pomodoro timer that strips away every distraction. When you enter Focus Mode, nothing else exists. The hours you log here are tracked separately — so you can actually see how much real work you're doing versus how much you're just busy.

This was the feature I personally needed most. It's one thing to check off "deep work" as a habit. It's another to see that you only actually focused for 40 minutes today instead of the 2 hours you told yourself you'd do.

3. XP, Levels & Streaks

I know, gamification gets a bad rap. But here's the thing — it works on me.

Every completed habit earns XP. Every minute in focus mode earns XP. You level up. You unlock badges. You have a streak to protect.

The streak psychology is real. "Don't break the chain" is one of the most powerful motivators for daily behavior. The app leans into it hard.

4. Global Leaderboard (Pro)

This one surprised me — seeing your name on a leaderboard next to other people who are also grinding daily habits is oddly motivating. It makes discipline feel like a team sport.

What I Intentionally Left Out

No subtasks. No priority levels. No "snooze until tomorrow." No recurring task templates with complex scheduling.

Every feature I considered adding, I asked: does this make it easier to do the work, or just easier to feel like I'm planning to do the work?

If the answer was the latter, it didn't ship.

The Free vs Pro Decision

Free tier: track up to 5 habits, streak tracking, focus mode, XP & badges. Forever.

The free tier is genuinely useful — 5 habits is actually the right number for most people starting out. Pro unlocks unlimited habits, analytics (30-day consistency rate, longest streaks), the global leaderboard, and priority support.

I wanted the free tier to feel complete, not crippled. Nobody should have to pay just to use the core loop.

What's Next

Mobile app (PWA first, then native)
Weekly reflection prompts
Habit templates for common goals (fitness, reading, creative work)
API for nerds who want to integrate it with their own dashboards

Try It

If you're the kind of person who believes the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your daily habits — Improve You was built for you.

5 habits, free, forever. No credit card. No onboarding wizard. Just open it and start.

Built by Ashutosh Swamy — GitHub · LinkedIn

I Got Tired of Writing READMEs, So I Built an AI Tool That Does It for Me

Ashutosh Swamy — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:38:01 +0000

We've all been there.

You just finished building something cool. The code works, the features are solid, and you're genuinely proud of it. Then comes the part nobody talks about — writing the documentation.

So you open a blank README. Stare at it. Write "## Installation" and then... nothing.

Half an hour later you've got three bullet points and a vague description that doesn't really explain anything. You push it anyway and move on.

I did this one too many times. So I built DocForge.

What Is DocForge?

DocForge is a single HTML file that reads any GitHub repository and automatically generates a complete documentation suite using Google Gemini 2.5.

You paste a GitHub URL. It gives you back:

A structured, professional README
API documentation (endpoints, parameters, responses)
Inline code comments
Setup & installation guide

That's it. No install. No backend. No subscription. Just one .html file you open in any browser.

Why a Single HTML File?

This was a deliberate decision.

Most developer tools today require: clone the repo → install dependencies → configure environment → hope it works. The friction kills adoption.

I wanted DocForge to be the opposite. Download one file, get a free Gemini API key from Google AI Studio (takes 2 minutes), open the file, paste your repo URL, done.

The entire tool runs client-side. Your repo data goes directly to Gemini's API — no middleman, no server costs on my end, no data stored anywhere.

How I Built It

The core architecture is surprisingly simple:

1. GitHub repo fetching

The tool fetches your repository's file tree and reads the key source files using the GitHub API. No auth required for public repos.

2. Context building

It builds a structured prompt from your codebase — file structure, key files, package.json / requirements.txt, existing partial docs — and feeds that as context to Gemini.

3. Gemini 2.5 generation

Gemini 2.5 is genuinely good at understanding code structure and generating coherent documentation. The model selection matters here — earlier models produced generic output. 2.5 understands intent.

4. Output rendering

Results render in a clean split-pane UI. Copy individual sections or export everything at once.

The whole thing is vanilla JS, no frameworks, no build step. That's how it stays as a single file.

What I Learned Building This

Prompt engineering is 80% of the work.

Getting Gemini to produce documentation that's actually useful — not just technically correct but readable, well-structured, and appropriately detailed — took way more iteration than the actual code. The difference between a mediocre and a great README is almost entirely in how you instruct the model.

Single-file tools are underrated.

There's something deeply satisfying about a tool that's fully self-contained. No dependencies to update, no deployment to manage, no server to pay for. It just works.

The best tools solve your own problems.

I built this because I needed it. That meant I knew exactly what "good output" looked like, which made iterating fast. If you're thinking about what to build next — start with your own frustrations.

Try It

🔗 Live demo: doc-forge.netlify.app

Open it, paste any public GitHub repo URL, add your Gemini API key, and watch it go. Takes about 30 seconds.

If it saves you time, you can grab the file on Gumroad: ashutosh15.gumroad.com/l/docforge

What's Next

A few things I'm thinking about:

Support for private repos (OAuth flow)
Generate docs for multiple repos
Export directly to the repo as a PR

If you have feature requests or feedback, drop them in the comments. And if you build something with it, I'd love to see what repos you threw at it.

Built by me