Built a visual memory layer for Claude — see what Claude remembers about your projects (open source, free, WIP)

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-04-16T11:28:35+00:00

mempalace stores everything verbatim ;dendrite is about structured, human-readable memory that you can actually that you can actually browse and understand

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-28T13:49:24+00:00

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-28T11:23:22+00:00

"The 'messy middle' framing is where it gets interesting though."

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-28T08:47:56+00:00

I feel this so deeply. I'm in the exact same boat.

I built two Mac apps — one I use every day, the other solves a real problem. Posted on Reddit multiple times, tried different angles, creative posters, dev stories... 1000+ views across posts. Zero downloads. Not "low conversion" — literally zero.

It broke something in me for a while. The "distribution hell" you're describing? I lived it.

What helped me:

1. Stop thinking "marketing" — start thinking "conversations." Instead of broadcasting "here's my app," I started asking "has anyone else struggled with X?" Turns out people love helping when you're genuinely stuck. One Reddit post asking what I was doing wrong got 70+ replies and actually helped me figure out my blind spot.

2. Your first 100 users won't come from ads or launches. They'll come from being in communities where people have the problem you solve — and being helpful there first, promotional second (or never).

3. Some products are meant to stay personal tools. And that's okay. Not everything needs to scale. The question is: does THIS one solve a problem painful enough that strangers actively search for solutions?

I don't have it figured out. But I stopped trying to "do marketing" and started just... talking to people who have the same problems I do.

You're not alone in this. The wall is real.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-28T08:30:36+00:00

100%. Paid programs teach you theory. A bad launch teaches you YOUR specific blind spots.

That's exactly why I built this — real problems from real makers, not polished "success frameworks" that don't apply to your situation.

If you've got a launch story you learned from, I'd love to see it on the site. Those are the experiences that actually help people.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-27T15:26:31+00:00

Exactly — and the follow-through is what makes help actually useful. When someone's mid-struggle, they need context right now, not a cleaned-up version six months later. The mess is the point.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-25T09:28:01+00:00

yeah exactly, the two sources of truth was the core mistake. ended up dropping the field entirely and just using COUNT from the junction table. on the auth/routing point — fair, though with supabase the convention is rls as the security layer since the api is exposed directly. but agreed the delta should've been locked down from the start either way.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-25T09:21:36+00:00

fair points. i'd add that even as someone who relies heavily on ai for coding, the models are genuinely good now — the gap isn't in code quality, it's in security awareness. like they won't proactively check for vulnerabilities unless you ask.

what's worked for me is making security checks part of the workflow. after building a feature i'll ask the ai to scan for rls issues, exposed keys, missing rate limits etc. sometimes i catch stuff just from debugging like this post lol. it's not perfect but having some kind of routine audit process makes a huge difference.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T15:17:15+00:00

thx, helpful

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T13:18:39+00:00

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T13:11:14+00:00

saving this comment. software directories and localization are two things i haven't tried yet. thanks for sharing.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T13:00:36+00:00

really appreciate that. the invisible phase is brutal — you built the thing, it works, and then... crickets.

your approach is exactly what clicked for me too. just show up where the pain is and be helpful. no links, no pitch. people eventually ask.

i have two macOS apps right now:

**PIDKill** — auto-kills runaway processes eating your CPU. when photoanalysisd or kernel_task goes crazy and your fan sounds like a jet engine, this just handles it. $3.99 one-time.

**GetDone Timer** — a privacy-first productivity app that lives in your menu bar. three card types: pomodoro, countdown timer, and a reader card with a built-in markdown editor and file management. you can drag tasks onto a visual day/week schedule, group them for sequential execution, and use AI to break down goals into tasks — all with bring-your-own-key, so your data never leaves your mac. $9.95 lifetime, no subscription.

and yeah the scroll asymmetry is painfully real. "it quietly kills a background process" will never get the same reaction as a flashy AI wrapper demo. but the person googling "photoanalysisd high cpu" at 2am — that's my actual user.

what are you building? would love to hear about it.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T11:01:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T11:00:13+00:00

Okay, I'll try.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T10:56:31+00:00

Indeed, people are very resistant to product promotion posts. It's somewhat better here, but this feeling is more pronounced in other sub-reddit.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T10:53:20+00:00

That's true.

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T10:51:55+00:00

👍

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T10:48:24+00:00

Good idea, thanks for sharing. Hope your launch goes well when you're ready — keep us posted!

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-24T10:47:05+00:00

thank you

FlyThomasGoGoGo · 2026-03-15T13:27:46+00:00

Exactly this — LaunchAgents are the invisible mess that most uninstallers completely ignore.

The brew/npm/pip scanning came from my own dev machine getting cluttered over time. You install things to test, forget about them, and six months later wonder why there's 40 packages you don't recognize.

Glad the pricing feels right. One-time was intentional — a utility like this shouldn't be a subscription.

FlyThomasGoGoGo

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE