From "I should learn this" to one project you actually ship

The tool saves as you type, so you can close the tab and come back to the same plan in the same browser. 🌙 switches between light and dark mode, and ↺ starts over after asking first. Just exploring? Load an example capstone fills in a sample project so you can see every part working. It only appears while the planner is empty.

Pick something you would use, or someone you know would use. A real reason to finish is what carries you through the middle, when the project is no longer new.

These are your finish line. Without them, a project either never ends or quietly shrinks until it's easy. Type each one and press Enter or Add. Later, tick each box when it's genuinely true. The ticks feed the "done means met" count and the README.

Tutorials work because everything is clean and prepared. Real projects teach you because nothing is: real shop pages change their layout, real bank exports have odd dates, free hosts have limits. One constraint like that forces the learning the tutorial skipped.

Once all three chips turn green, step 2 unlocks. Until then, it shows a reminder of what's missing.

A slice goes all the way through the project, thinly: a little input, a little processing, a little output, working together. Layers ("the database", "the UI") and chores ("install everything") can take weeks without producing anything you can show. The tool refuses milestones that start with set up, install, configure, learn, study, read, watch or research, and asks for a slice instead. The setup and learning go inside it.

New milestones go to the Backlog. Use ↑ and ↓ to put them in build order. Click a milestone's title to rename it.

→ Move to sprint means "I'm building this now". The limit of two is deliberate: five half-built milestones feel busy but produce nothing you can show. A week is a good sprint length for most people, though the tool doesn't track dates. If a milestone turns out to be bigger than it looked, ← Back to backlog and split it into two smaller ones.

This is the heart of the method. Before you open a course or a tutorial, ask which milestone it's for. If you can't name one, it's "just in case" learning, so don't start it yet. Add a resource link (a docs page, a video, a chapter) and the topic becomes a clickable link.

"Used in" is your proof that the learning turned into output. Items still waiting for it have an orange edge and count as theory debt (Part 3). Undo reopens an item if you marked it too early.

A milestone can't be shipped without proof. That's what separates "I think it works" from something a stranger could check. If any learning item on the milestone isn't marked as used yet, the form tells you. You can still ship, but those items turn red and count as theory debt until you close or delete them. Reopen sends a shipped milestone back to the sprint and clears its proof.

The README updates as you plan. It lists the goal, your status, the "done means" checklist, the constraints, every milestone with its proof link, and a table of what you learned and where you used it. On GitHub, a file named README.md at the top of a repository is shown on its front page, so anyone looking at your work sees the story behind it. This is the "Capstone Portfolio" from the blueprint.

Clearing your browser data, using a private window, or switching to another device or browser means starting with an empty planner. Export backup downloads the whole plan as a file named after your capstone and the date. Import backup loads one back, after asking before it replaces anything. A good habit is exporting whenever you ship a milestone, and committing the file to the project's repository alongside the README.

Interests make a big difference. A price tracker for things you actually buy, or stats from your own cycling rides, gives you a reason to finish that a generic "todo app" never will. Build my prompt writes the prompt. It asks for three briefs, each with a real constraint and milestones written as working slices, in a fixed format this tool can read.

Pick the brief you'd be most annoyed not to finish, not the most impressive one. If none fits, reply in the same chat: Make brief 2 smaller, Use my own bank exports as the data, or Give me three more. The assistant is told not to write any code, because building it is your job.

The tool reads the capstone, the "done means" and constraint lists, and each milestone with its | learn: topics already attached. Everything lands in the backlog, ready for you to reorder and edit. It copes with the bold text, headings and checkboxes assistants like to add. If you paste all three briefs, it uses the first and tells you. If your planner already has a capstone, it asks before replacing it.

CAPSTONE: A price tracker that emails me when a product drops below my target price
DONE MEANS:
- Tracks 5 real product pages
- Sends one real email alert
CONSTRAINTS:
- Uses real shop pages
MILESTONES:
1. Fetch one real price | learn: HTTP requests; HTML parsing
2. Save a price history | learn: SQLite basics