TendThe big picture
The double arrow is the sync: changes flow up from your device and back down to your other devices in real time.
Step by step
Install it from a link GitHub Pages
The app is a website hosted free on GitHub Pages. On a phone you "Add to Home Screen" and it opens full screen like a normal app. A small background script (a service worker) keeps a copy of the app, so it still opens without signal.
Sign in Supabase
Supabase handles accounts: email and password, a confirmation email and password resets. I didn't have to build any of that.
Tick a task, and it's saved at once Your device
The change goes straight into your browser's storage, so there's no loading spinner. A coin flies across the screen. A ledger makes sure each task only pays once, and unticking takes the coin back.
Changes are batched up to the cloud Device → Supabase
About a second later, Tend sends only what changed. If you're offline, changes wait in a queue and go up when you reconnect.
The database checks it's really you Supabase
Every table has row-level security: a rule inside the database that only lets you read or write rows with your own user ID. Even if someone tampered with the app, they couldn't reach your tasks.
Your other devices update live Supabase → devices
Supabase Realtime pushes the change to your laptop or phone within a second. As a backup, the app also re-checks whenever it wakes up or comes back online.
Spend coins, grow the garden Your device
Buy seedlings, saplings, tools, pets and new garden sections. Water a seedling five times and it grows into a random flower. The whole garden is drawn in pixel-art SVG, and you walk around it by touch or keyboard.
Friends visit Supabase → friend
The Friends tab reads a separate public view that shows only garden details: name, layout, pets and coin count. Tasks were never included, so there's nothing private to leak. Visiting a garden is look-only.
The pieces
Plain JavaScript
About 13,000 lines, no framework, no build step to run the app.
Fewer moving parts. Opens instantly and runs on anything.
Progressive web app
An app manifest plus a service worker let it install to your home screen and run offline.
An app on every phone without going through an app store.
Supabase
Accounts, a Postgres database, privacy rules and live updates in one hosted service.
A full backend without writing or running a server.
Row-level security
Privacy is enforced by the database itself, not just by the app.
The app can't accidentally show someone else's tasks, even with a bug.
SVG pixel art
Every plant, pet and fence is drawn from tiny rectangles in code, with garden and ocean-reef themes.
Crisp at any size with no image files to download.
build.py
Stamps a new version number into the service worker on every release so installed phones fetch the update.
Otherwise phones keep running the old cached app forever.
Trade-offs I chose
- Local first, cloud second: it feels instant and works on a train, at the cost of more careful sync logic.
- No friend requests: anyone with an account can view any garden. That keeps it simple, and it's safe because gardens hold nothing private.
- Friends' gardens load when you open them rather than updating live, to keep database traffic low.