Mangesh Dalvi

Posted on Jan 12 • Edited on Jan 19

I Built “Personal Store” Because I Was Tired of Texting Myself

#productivity #showdev #tooling

Stop treating your WhatsApp "You" chat like a database. It's time for an upgrade.

We all do it. You’re on your phone, scrolling through Twitter or reading an article, and you find something you need to save for later. What do you do? You hit share and send it to... yourself.

Maybe it’s a "Saved Messages" chat on Telegram, a Slack DM to yourself, or the lonely "You" conversation on WhatsApp.

Fast forward two weeks. You need that link. You open your chat app and start scrolling. Past the grocery lists, past the random screenshots, past the reminders to "call mom." That important resource is buried in a linear, unorganized graveyard of digital debris.

I built Personal Store to solve this exact problem. It is a centralized, privacy-focused bridge between your devices, designed to replace the chaotic "self-chat" workflow with a structured, intelligent workspace.

The Problem: The "Me" Chat is Broken

Chat apps are designed for communication, not storage. They lack:

Organization: No tags, no folders, no hierarchy.
Context: A link is just a link. You can't add structured notes or metadata easily.
Permanence: Finding something from 3 months ago requires an archeological dig.
Security: That API key or password you just texted yourself? It's sitting in plaintext in a chat log.

The Solution: Meet Personal Store

Personal Store is a web-based "second brain" designed to be the perfect middleman between your mobile and desktop workflows. It’s where you put things you aren't ready to file away permanently, but can't afford to lose.

🚀 Key Features That Change the Game

1. The specialized "Stores"

Instead of one big bucket, Personal Store organizes your data by intent:

🤖 Agent Store: Chat with an AI assistant that automatically organizes your inputs. Paste code, notes, or links, and the agent will analyze and save them to the appropriate store (Snippets, Clipboard, or Links) intelligently.
📝 Snippet Store: For code blocks, prompts, and reusable text, and custom tagging.
🔗 Link Store: A bookmark manager that doesn't get lost in your browser.
📋 Clipboard Store: A transient buffer for moving text from Phone → PC instantly.
📊 Habit Store: Consistency is key. Track your daily habits with a built-in contribution grid (GitHub-style) and streak tracking to keep you motivated.
📋 Tracking Store: A full Kanban-style workspace with multiple boards, columns, and cards. Perfect for project management or complex task tracking with drag-and-drop support.
👣 Steps Store: Document and execute complex multi-step procedures. Create reusable guides with variables, instructions, and commands for everything from server setups to deployment workflows.
📦 Drop Store: Need to get text from a friend’s phone to your laptop without adding them on socials? Generate a temporary link and let them "drop" the text directly into your vault.

2. 🔥 Secret Store (Burn After Reading)

We often need to share sensitive data—passwords, API tokens, private keys—with colleagues. Sending them via Slack or Email is a security risk.

The Secret Store lets you generate a unique link for your sensitive data. The link works exactly once. As soon as the recipient views it, the data is permanently deleted from the server. It’s the safest way to share secrets without leaving a digital paper trail.

3. ✨ Smart Editor

The Smart Editor is designed for reusability and speed, acting as a staging ground for your most important text.

Store Critical Info: Keep essential details like ID numbers (e.g., PAN card), addresses, or account info ready for instant access.
Reusable Text & Messages: Don't rewrite the same thing twice. Store common replies, code blocks, or message drafts and reuse them effortlessly.
Dynamic Templates: Create prompts or templates with placeholders (variables). Insert them into the Smart Editor and quickly fill in the specific details for the task at hand.

4. 🌍 Public Store

Share knowledge without oversharing. The Public Store allows you to turn any snippet into a shareable resource.

Share Information & Prompts: Easily distribute helpful guides, code snippets, or AI prompts with friends or the community.
Granular Access Control: Create public links with confidence. You can choose to make a snippet open to everyone or restrict access to specific users, giving you full control over who sees your content.

5. 👁️ Privacy & Visibility Control

Ever been screen-sharing on Zoom or streaming on Twitch and realized you have sensitive info on your screen?

Privacy Mode: One click blurs all sensitive content—titles, snippets, and notes—allowing you to navigate your dashboard safely in public.
Master Visibility Toggle: Tired of seeing "Hidden" items everywhere? The Master Toggle lets you globally hide or reveal anything you've marked as secret, keeping your workspace clean when you don't need the deep cuts.

6. 🔒 Encrypted Database

Your privacy is paramount. Unlike typical chat apps or note-taking tools that often store text in plain sight, Personal Store encrypts all your data. Whether it's a todo list, a code snippet, or a saved link, your content is encrypted before it ever hits the database. This ensures that your information remains secure and private at rest.

7. 🤝 Collaborative Workspaces (New!)

Personal Store has evolved from a solo tool to a collaborative powerhouse. You can now invite others to specific parts of your vault without sharing your login.

Shared Link Categories: Planning a trip or managing a team project? You can share individual Link Store categories with other users. They can view, add, and edit links within that category instantly.
Shared Clipboards: Need a real-time text buffer between you and a colleague? Create a dedicated Clipboard tab and share it. It acts as a synchronized scratchpad for your team.
Granular Control: You stay in charge. Owners can add or remove members by username, while collaborators can contribute freely or leave the shared resource when they're done.

8. 📱 A Mobile-First Bridge

The real magic happens in the Mobile View. Most of our "self-texting" starts on a phone. Personal Store features a dedicated, grid-based mobile interface that feels like a native app.

Whether you're quickly saving a link from your mobile browser, checking off a todo while on the move, or "dropping" text to your PC, the mobile experience is optimized for speed and one-handed use. It’s not just a responsive website; it's a purposefully designed mobile dashboard.

Pro Tip: For a truly native feel, you can "install" Personal Store on your phone:

Open the site in Chrome on your mobile.
Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) and select "Add to Home Screen".
Click Install.

Now you can access your vault directly from your home screen without the browser UI getting in the way.

Under the Hood: A Modern Tech Stack

For the developers reading this, Personal Store is built on the bleeding edge of the React ecosystem.

Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router) for robust server-side rendering and API handling.
Language: TypeScript, because type safety is non-negotiable.
UI: React 19 + Tailwind CSS 4 + Radix UI.
Database: MongoDB (via Mongoose) for flexible document storage.
AI: Google Generative AI.

We leveraged Next.js Server Actions for seamless data mutations, keeping the client-side bundle small and snappy.

Open Source & Self-Hostable

Data privacy is the core of Personal Store. While there is a hosted, the entire project is open source. You can clone the repo, spin up your own MongoDB instance, and host your own private instance on Vercel, a VPS, or your Raspberry Pi.

Your data, your rules.

Try It Out

Stop scrolling through your chat history to find that one link from last Tuesday. Give your digital life the home it deserves.

Live: https://personal-store-alpha.vercel.app
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/dalvimangesh/Personal-Store

If you find Personal Store useful, consider giving it a star on GitHub! Contributions are always welcome.

Top comments (24)

Kamal Morjal • Jan 21

I do use a version of "You" chat like a database ever since delicio.us went offline. You nailed the problem statement so well that i let out an amused snort - "hey, that's me" :)

In fact it is so much of a muscle memory now that your article's link also went straight into that db as soon as i read through your intro. 😂

Thank you for sharing this project.

Mangesh Dalvi • Jan 21

Haha, the void delicio.us left is real! I’m glad I could nail the problem statement for you. Honored to be the latest entry in your DB! 😂

Ben Sinclair • Jan 21

If it's self-hosted and privacy-aware, how does the AI store manage that?

Mangesh Dalvi • Jan 21

This is good question. Communication of Agent Store is strictly unidirectional. Data you input is categorised (link, snippet, or clipboard) and stored via API using AI. The AI represents a 'write-only' interface regarding in Personal Store—it knows only what you explicitly share and cannot fetch existing data from the database.

Ketut Dana • Jan 14

Hi thank you for sharing its nice project.
I just finish something similiar, its call vinotesapp

same like what you did
its save some text, an images , link and more.
the cool part is, we can sync to our google drive. so the file is save on our accaount.

please visit at vinotesapp.com

Kamal Morjal • Jan 21

This is lovely. Thanks for sharing. Is this also open source?
May I suggest a feature - instead of working on folder organisation, have you considered tags, or labels like gmail? I find that to be a lot more flexible way for organisation of such quick notes behind the scenes instead of creating folders and then keeping track of the folders while creating new content and wanting to quickly save it.