SoloDesk Intelligence: An AI-Powered Project Management Tool for Freelancers

Harsh Aggarwal — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:33:07 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

What I Built

SoloDesk Intelligence is a project management application designed to help freelancers manage client projects, track scope changes, estimate additional costs, and collect client approvals.

Scope creep is a common challenge in freelancing. Clients request new features or revisions, but the extra effort and cost are not always documented clearly.

SoloDesk addresses this by allowing freelancers to generate project proposals, establish an approved scope baseline, analyze new client requests, and create change orders with estimated additional hours and costs.

It also provides shareable client approval links, allowing clients to review change orders and accept or reject them online.

Demo

Live application: https://solodesk-frontend.onrender.com/
YouTube demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9GaBFcfmA

Code

GitHub repository: https://github.com/HarshAggarwal1/solodesk-intelligence

How I Built It

SoloDesk Intelligence uses a modern full-stack web architecture.

Frontend: React and Vite
Backend: Node.js and Express
Database: PostgreSQL
AI integration: AI-assisted proposal generation and change-request analysis
Additional features: PDF quotation generation, change-order tracking, and client approval workflows

The application separates internal approval from client approval, helping freelancers maintain a clear record of decisions.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation enables developers to experiment with practical AI applications and make useful tools accessible to a wider audience.

I wanted to explore how AI could solve a real problem faced by freelancers rather than simply generate text or answer questions. SoloDesk uses AI to support project planning and scope analysis, while leaving important business decisions under human control.

The project demonstrates how AI can be integrated into a conventional SaaS workflow to make everyday operations more transparent and manageable.

Prize Categories

SoloDesk Intelligence is an AI-powered project management SaaS built to help freelancers manage client projects, prevent scope creep, and streamline change-order approvals.

Built with React, Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL, the application uses Gemma for AI-assisted proposal generation and client-request analysis, with Render for deployment.

The project addresses a practical freelancing problem: untracked client requests that lead to unclear deliverables, unexpected work, and payment disputes. SoloDesk helps freelancers establish scope baselines, estimate additional hours and costs, generate change orders, and share approval links so clients can accept or reject proposed changes online.

The goal is to make freelance project management more transparent, structured, and efficient using AI.

Live demo: https://solodesk-frontend.onrender.com/
AI model: Gemma
Deployment: Render

Thanks for checking out SoloDesk Intelligence. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

devchallenge #hf26challenge #Gemma #AI #WebDevelopment #Render

TouchGrass: An AI Whose Success Is Measured by How Quickly You Stop Using It 🌱

Harsh Aggarwal — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 11:52:32 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass

What I Built

TouchGrass is an AI-powered application built for the Hacktoberfest ’26 Week 1 challenge, Touch Grass.

The idea is simple: instead of keeping users glued to a screen, TouchGrass encourages them to step outside and engage with the real world.

Users can choose an activity, duration, setting, and difficulty to generate an outdoor mission. They can then enter Go Outside Mode, put their phone away, and return later to record their experience.

Key features:

AI-generated outdoor missions
Customizable activity, duration, setting, and difficulty
Go Outside Mode for screen-free time
Optional photo evidence and personal reflections
My Submissions section to review completed missions
Built-in fallback missions when AI inference is unavailable

Demo

Live Demo: https://touchgrass-delta-six.vercel.app/
Video Demo: https://youtu.be/9seersnxmN4

Code

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/HarshAggarwal1/touchgrass

The repository contains the React frontend, Express backend, mission-generation logic, and instructions for running the application locally.

How I Built It

TouchGrass uses React and Vite for the frontend, with Node.js and Express handling API requests.

The mission-generation flow works as follows:

Users select their preferences.
The frontend sends them to the backend.
The backend attempts to generate a structured mission using the configured language model.
The response is validated before being displayed.
If AI inference fails, a built-in fallback provides a mission.

Mission records, reflections, and related data are stored in the browser.

Tech stack

React and Vite
Node.js and Express
Hugging Face Inference Providers for hosted inference
Browser localStorage for persistence
Vercel and Render for deployment

The application is designed to remain useful even when the hosted AI provider is unavailable.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation makes it possible to experiment with AI models, adapt them to specific use cases, and build applications without depending entirely on a single proprietary AI provider.

For TouchGrass, using an open-weight model makes the mission-generation component more flexible and replaceable. It also lets the project explore a different way of using AI: helping people spend less time interacting with technology.

The goal is not to maximize engagement or screen time. It is to give users a practical reason to put their phones away and experience the world around them.

Prize Categories

Best Use of Gemma: TouchGrass was initially built using Gemma through Ollama. The deployed model must be verified before claiming this category.
Render Deployment: The frontend is hosted on Vercel, and the backend is deployed on Render.

DEV Community: Harsh Aggarwal

SoloDesk Intelligence: An AI-Powered Project Management Tool for Freelancers

What I Built

Demo

Code

How I Built It

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Prize Categories

devchallenge #hf26challenge #Gemma #AI #WebDevelopment #Render

TouchGrass: An AI Whose Success Is Measured by How Quickly You Stop Using It 🌱

What I Built

Demo

Code

How I Built It

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Prize Categories