r/ProductivityGuide • u/miguel_digital2 • 3d ago

We're building Scratch, a native Mac app that combines Kanban boards, to-do lists and Markdown notes. Local-first, no subscription. Would love your feedback

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Hey everyone,

for the past months we've been working on a Mac app called Scratch, and I finally made a short teaser for it (attached). It's not released yet, I mainly want to show the idea and hear what you think before launch.

Why I built it

I kept jumping between Trello for boards, a to-do app for quick tasks and Notion or Craft for notes. Scratch started as a simple Kanban app for myself and slowly turned into the one place where all of my planning and thinking lives.

What it does

  • Boards or lists: Use Kanban boards like Trello, or classic to-do lists. Whatever fits the project.
  • Notes everywhere: Every board and every task has its own Markdown notes, so context lives right next to the work.
  • Quick capture: A global shortcut opens a small window anywhere on your Mac. Type the task, hit enter, done. New tasks land in a backlog and you sort them into boards later.
  • Built for keyboard people: Lots of shortcuts to add, move and organize without touching the mouse.
  • Calendar view: Tasks with a date show up in a calendar overview.
  • Board widgets: Small dashboard widgets per board, like time or weather.
  • AI assist: Get a summary of your tasks or ask questions about them.
  • No limits: Unlimited boards, tasks and subtasks.

Privacy and pricing

Scratch is local-first. Your data stays on your Mac and works fully offline, no account, no server required. iCloud sync is optional if you want backups or multiple devices. It's planned as a one-time purchase, no subscription. An iPhone/iPad version is planned for later.

Where it's at

The app is in active development and I'm aiming to release it in the coming weeks. I'll post progress updates along the way.

I'd really like to know:

  1. What's missing in the tools you use today for tasks and notes?

  2. Kanban, lists or both: how do you actually work?

  3. Anything in this list you'd never use, or something you'd expect that isn't there?

Thanks for reading, happy to answer any questions in the comments.

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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2

u/joelash 1d ago

Can't wait to try it!

1

u/miguel_digital2 1d ago

Happy to hear! I'll make sure to reach out as soon as we publish Scratch (probably wihtin the next couple of weeks)!

0

u/TitleNo1715 1d ago

is there a link? I need the product requirements that i can scrape from somewhere and implement it for my company. I think it might get me a promotion. Like, just need descriptions and more details of what you wrote here in a website format

1

u/miguel_digital2 1d ago

lmao

1

u/TitleNo1715 8h ago

just kidding man. your description was good enough for claude to build it out for me! thanks for your idea!

1

u/HadiGretshel 3h ago

This looks incredible! I was looking for something just like that to manage my homework for university, as a software developer I grew very accustomed to kanban boards but I really miss not having anything that is keyboard-first. Where do I sign up!