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Micasa – track your house from the terminal

Micasa – track your house from the terminal

by cpcloud·Feb 19, 2026·657 points·218 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemCozySolve My Problem

VisiData for your house: Vim keys, SQLite, no cloud. Clever niche, narrow audience.

Strengths
  • Vim-modal TUI with multicolumn sort, fuzzy jump, row pinning, and column hiding shows thoughtful keyboard UX design
  • Single SQLite file means full portability, offline-first, and trivial backup via cp—no cloud lock-in
  • Addresses genuine homeowner pain: scattered receipts, warranty dates, vendor history across notes/spreadsheets
Weaknesses
  • Audience is small: requires both terminal comfort AND homeowner mindset—rules out most users
  • Local-only SQLite limits multi-user household sharing and mobile access, real needs for families
  • 99% AI-generated code raises long-term maintainability concerns despite author's review claims
Category
Target Audience

Homeowners, property managers, DIY enthusiasts who prefer terminal tools

Similar To

VisiData · Notion (personal property management) · HomeAdvisor (cloud alternative)

Post Description

micasa is a terminal UI that helps you track home stuff, in a single SQLite file. No cloud, no account, no subscription. Backup with cp.

I built it because I was tired of losing track of everything in notes apps, and "I'll remember that"s. When do I need to clean the dishwasher filter? What's the best quote for a complete overhaul of the backyard. Oops, found some mold behind the trim, need to address that ASAP. That sort of stuff.

Another reason I made micasa was to build a (hopefully useful) low-stakes personal project where the code was written entirely by AI. I still review the code and click the merge button, but 99% of the programming was done with an agent.

Here are some things I think make it worth checking out:

- Vim-style modal UI. Nav mode to browse, edit mode to change. Multicolumn sort, fuzzy-jump to columns, pin-and-filter rows, hide columns you don't need, drill into related records (like quotes for a project). Much of the spirit of the design and some of the actual design choices is and are inspired by VisiData. You should check that out too. - Local LLM chat. Definitely a gimmick, but I am trying preempt "Yeah, but does it AI?"-style conversations. This is an optional feature and you can simply pretend it doesn't exist. All features work without it. - Single-file SQLite-based architecture. Document attachments (manuals, receipts, photos) are stored as BLOBs in the same SQLite database. One file is the whole app state. If you think this won't scale, you're right. It's pretty damn easy to work with though. - Pure Go, zero CGO. Built on Charmbracelet for the TUI and GORM + go-sqlite for the database. Charm makes pretty nice TUIs, and this was my first time using it.

Try it with sample data: go install github.com/cpcloud/micasa/cmd/micasa@latest && micasa --demo

If you're insane you can also run micasa --demo --years 1000 to generate 1000 years worth of demo data. Not sure what house would last that long, but hey, you do you.

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Flora Carta, design and keep track of your garden or orchard

The site nails a vintage botanical aesthetic and exposes basic account flows (email + Google sign-in) — it feels like the author's personal plant inventory opened to the public. It's clearly early: the landing promises tracking of varieties and planting years but shows no sign of bulk import, geotagged plant pins, photo timelines, or care/reminder features that would make it genuinely useful at scale. Add CSV import, location mapping, and recurring care reminders and this could move from a charming prototype to an indispensable tool for serious hobbyists.

Niche GemCozyEye Candy
simonsarris
103mo ago