TL;DR:
What: A React Native Open Source productivity App.
Tech: React Native, SQLite, Typescript, i18n, CI/CD
Results: Free Open Source app available on Play Store
Read further to: discover how I transformed my problem into an actual application
The Problem
Too often, I’d find myself paralyzed by decision fatigue, mindlessly scrolling on my phone instead of doing something that actually helped me grow or learn something new. I’ve always loved productivity apps with sleek planners and cool UI, but I could never find one that had exactly the tools I needed without being locked behind a subscription paywall.
The Idea
That's when I realized it was time to stop searching and start building. I wanted to engineer my own solution—something that could genuinely help me, and hopefully others, overcome this exact problem.
I’ve always loved the concept of "gamifying" daily routines (completing tasks and gaining something in return) and I am a huge fan of mountain trekking. That’s how I decided to shape the core identity of my app: combining gamification with a trekking analogy. The goal is to help users "climb" their days, conquer their decision fatigue, and ultimately reach their peaks.
ClimbStack
And that's how ClimbStack was born. The application is built around five main basecamps:
Today: A minimalist interface to check your daily tasks at a glance, eliminating the time spent thinking about what to do next.
Peaks: The place to track your main goals. You can divide them into smaller "sub-camps," making it easier to climb towards your objectives. Here you can also check your current altitude, the total number of peaks reached, and your daily streak.
Planner: A drag-and-drop environment where you take your customized "Blocks" (see below) and place them into your week. It synchronizes in real-time with your local calendar, allowing you to view your ClimbStack tasks and personal events in one unified space.
Blocks: Where creativity takes place. You can create personalized categories and blocks for the planner without any limits. By assigning a weekly hourly target, it becomes much easier to reach your quota while organizing your schedule.
Settings: The control room to personalize your experience. You can switch between multiple languages (EN | IT | DE | ES | FR) and manage your local backups to seamlessly switch devices or store your data safely.
Privacy First, Always Offline
As a developer, my main goal was to keep all your data strictly private. ClimbStack is designed to be 100% offline-first, meaning you can use it wherever you are: at school, on the subway, or literally at the peak of a mountain.
To achieve this, the app relies on a local SQLite database. As mentioned, it synchronizes exclusively with your device's local calendar, bypassing invasive cloud integrations. Even the backup system is designed around a local JSON file, giving the user total sovereignty over whether to store their data locally or upload it to their cloud of choice.
Open-Source and Production
The application has been developed—and will continuously evolve—in a fully open-source ecosystem. All the code is publicly available on GitHub: ClimbStack's Repo.
The repository is structured to welcome anyone. You can participate by opening an issue, proposing a new feature, or getting your hands dirty with the code and submitting a PR! Everyone is welcome to share their ideas and help build the ultimate productivity tool.
Now It's Your Turn
The app is officially available on the Google Play Store, and you can start climbing today. Feel free to contribute on GitHub (a star ⭐ is always appreciated!) or follow the project's updates on our LinkedIn Page.
While an iOS release isn't immediately on the horizon, sponsoring or contributing to the project is the best way to help us bring ClimbStack to the Apple ecosystem soon!
Now pack your gear, download the app, and start climbing!
About the Author
Hi, I’m GiZano! I am a BSc Computer Science student at the University of Pisa, deeply passionate about IoT, local AI, and sustainable technology. As an active Open Source contributor, my goal is to dive deeper into the FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) world and help make tech accessible to everyone.
Let's connect! LinkedIn | GitHub | Personal Website
Top comments (2)
Love the trekking angle, "basecamps" is a much nicer frame than another task list. Congrats on getting it on the Play Store as open source. Curious about the release side: was your Play Console account a personal one, and if so how did you handle the 12 testers for 14 days closed test? Finding testers who stay opted in is the part most solo devs seem to get stuck on. Any plans for iOS?
Hi LetsDeployIt, love the questions!
First of all: Yes, I used a personal Play Console account that I created specifically for this app.
Regarding the testers, I asked some friends and relatives. To keep everyone engaged, I used a WhatsApp channel to broadcast messages about new updates, and collected their feedback either in real life or via private chats. It worked surprisingly well to keep them opted-in!
As for iOS, I've been thinking about setting up a Ko-fi account and linking it to GitHub Sponsors. Publishing on the App Store is quite expensive ($99/year), and as a student, I wouldn't be able to sustain that recurring cost alone right now. Hopefully, with a bit of community support, we can make it happen! Thanks again for reading.