Offsite: Build a Note-Taking App

Demos: Friday team meeting | Teams: Solo, pairs, or small groups | Stack: Anything

What

Build the weirdest note-taking app you can. Must run locally. That's it.

"Note-taking app" is the seed — what you build doesn't have to resemble one. Wackier = better.

You're the product owner. Copilot is your engineering team. You set the vision, file issues, review output. Focus on what, not how.

Goals

1. Build something weird — if it exists already, take it somewhere nobody expects.
2. Be the PM — break your vision into tasks, direct agents to execute.
3. Learn something new — new stack, new tool, new technique.
4. Demo Friday — you have all week to iterate.

Agent Setup

Set up agents with different roles. Staff a small team.

• Coder agent — builds features, scaffolds project, writes code.
• Tester agent — give it OS access (screen, mouse, keyboard). It launches your app, clicks through UI, takes screenshots, catches runtime bugs. Code generator → QA engineer.

Workflow

1. You file issues describing features
2. Coder agent picks issues, writes code, opens PRs
3. Tester agent pulls branch, launches app, verifies it works
4. You review, merge, file follow-ups
5. Repeat all week

Autopilot mode

Run agent on a loop — it checks issues and works through them:

copilot -p "Check open issues. Pick one, fix it on a branch, open a PR." \
  --autopilot --allow-all

How QuickSheet was built — agent on schedule, picking issues, shipping PRs. Human reviews and merges.

Ideas

QuickSheet turned desktop wallpaper into an interactive spreadsheet — notes, commands, live data in a grid. Backed by CSV. That energy.

• Notes in your terminal prompt
• Note app where UI is a game
• Notes stored as git commits
• Note app that only accepts drawings
• Keyboard macro pad that types your notes
• Notes that slowly fade away
• Note app that talks back
• 3D note space like a video game
• Notes that spread across filesystem like a virus
• Desktop wallpaper that IS your notes
• Note app controlled by hand gestures
• Something nobody thought of yet

Getting Started

1. Clone this repo

2. Pick stack:

   Approach	Examples
   Desktop	Electron, Tauri, .NET MAUI, JavaFX, Tkinter
   Web (local)	React, Vue, Svelte + local storage
   Terminal	Go, Rust, Python (Rich/Textual), Node.js
   Mobile	React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin
   Extension	Obsidian plugin, VS Code extension

3. Create projects/<your-name>/

4. Build. Commit often.

5. Drop notes or screenshots in your project folder.

Demos

Friday team meeting. Show app, show agent setup, share what surprised you. No slides.

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Previous offsite: One Billion Row Challenge