What I Built

I built Random Walk, a small app that turns a few minutes of free time into a reason to step outside. Choose a 5-, 10-, or 20-minute walk, share your location with the browser, and the app suggests a nearby waypoint, creates a Google Maps walking-directions link, and asks AI for a short outdoor observation mission.

It’s for anyone who wants a low-effort nudge to explore their neighborhood. The screen helps start the walk, then gets out of the way.

Code

shah-shivam-410 / random-walk

Touch Grass: Random Walk

A tiny browser app for turning spare time into a nearby walk. Choose 5, 10, or 20 minutes, share your location with the browser, get an outdoor mission generated by GitHub Copilot, and open walking directions to a nearby waypoint.

Requirements

Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+
GitHub Copilot CLI installed and signed in with an eligible Copilot subscription

The mission is generated through the GitHub Copilot SDK on the local Node.js server. The browser never receives Copilot credentials. Your coordinates are used only in the browser to calculate a waypoint and make the Google Maps link; they are not sent to Copilot or stored.

Run locally

npm ci
npm start

In Windows PowerShell, use npm.cmd ci and npm.cmd start if script execution policy blocks npm.

Open http://localhost:3000 and allow location access. Browser geolocation is available on localhost and secure (HTTPS) pages. Select a duration and press…

View on GitHub

How I Built It

The interface uses plain HTML, CSS, and browser JavaScript, with a small Node.js server. The browser asks permission for geolocation, calculates an approximate waypoint in a random direction based on the selected duration, and opens Google Maps walking directions when the user chooses to view them.

For the mission, the server uses the GitHub Copilot SDK, an MIT-licensed open-source SDK, to prompt Copilot for one brief, safe, screen-free observation activity. The model is hosted by Copilot; this project does not run an open-weight model or perform local inference. The server keeps Copilot credentials out of browser code. The user’s coordinates stay in the browser and are not sent to the mission-generation endpoint.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

The open-source SDK made it possible to inspect and integrate an agent runtime directly into a small Node.js app, rather than making the experience depend on the Copilot Chat interface. That let me keep the mission generation on the server, shape its prompt around a short outdoor activity, and keep location data out of that AI request.

DEV Community

Random Walk: A Tiny AI Nudge to Get Outside