bar'd vs KoeNote

bar'd is the ultimate physical lock for your digital distractions. Built on Apple's strict Screen Time API, bar'd doesn't just ask you nicely to put your phone down—it forces you to. Link your custom Focus Modes (like Work, Study, or Phone-free Dinner) to a physical barcode anywhere in your house or office. Once you activate a session, your distracting apps are shielded. The only way back in? Get up, walk over, and scan that exact physical barcode. There is no PIN bypass. There is no cooldown timer. There is no "remind me in 15 minutes." You either delete the app, or you scan the barcode. HOW IT WORKS: Create a Mode: Set up a profile (e.g., "Dumb phone") and whitelist only the apps you actually need. Everything else gets shielded. Bind a Barcode: Link the mode to any physical barcode (a book, a coffee bag, a label on your desk). Lock In: Activate the mode manually or set an automated daily schedule. Unlock: To pause, edit, or stop the session early, you must physically scan the tied barcode. KEY FEATURES: • Unbreakable Focus: Uses Apple's FamilyControls to securely shield blocked apps at the system level. • Physical Accountability: Ties your digital habits to the physical world using your camera's AVFoundation pipeline. • Custom Schedules: Automate your focus times in the background. • Stats & Streaks: Track your focused hours, build a daily streak, and climb the ranks up to Grandmaster. • Private by Design: All App Group state and SwiftData persistence happens entirely on-device.

You open the coffee app. You fill in the form. You open the journal app. You fill in the form. You open the spreadsheet. You fill in the form. People said LLMs would change how we interact with software. The form is still there. KoeNote changes that. Tap record. Speak naturally. KoeNote transcribes your voice, sends it through an AI model using a template you define, and saves the structured result directly to your GitHub repository — in seconds. Your coffee tasting note becomes a formatted json file. Your workout log becomes a structured entry. Your journal becomes a timestamped record. No forms. No friction. Just speak and move on. What makes it different KoeNote is not a notes app. It is a capture layer. Your GitHub repository is the destination — what you build on top of it is entirely up to you. Connect it to Obsidian, trigger a GitHub Action, build a personal dashboard, pipe it into a database. KoeNote gets the data in. You decide what happens next. Templates you own Templates are simple instructions you write once: "Format this as a coffee brewing log with fields for dose, ratio, and tasting notes." KoeNote applies your template to every recording. Different activity, different template — the output is always exactly what you defined. Don't want to write one from scratch? Just speak what you want to capture — KoeNote generates the template for you instantly. Already have a record and want to add more? Speak your update and KoeNote merges it into the existing entry. Your data stays complete, not scattered across separate files. Your data, your keys KoeNote has no backend. There is no KoeNote account. Your API keys for Claude and OpenAI are stored exclusively in your device's Keychain — never transmitted to or stored by KoeNote. Your GitHub personal access token lives in the same place. Nothing leaves your device except the API calls you explicitly authorize. Set spending limits directly in your LLM provider's dashboard. KoeNote never touches billing — your keys, your budget, your control. What you need to get started - A GitHub account and a personal access token (with `contents: write` permission on your target repo) - An API key from Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI - About five minutes to set up your first template Supported LLM providers - Anthropic Claude (`claude-haiku-4-5` default — fast and cost-efficient for structured extraction) - OpenAI (`gpt-5.4-nano` default — fast and cost-efficient for structured extraction) You can change the model name in Settings. Google Gemini support is planned for a future release.