Personal Project

Sly — a family
chief-of-staff,
over text.

An SMS-native AI assistant I designed and built to run my household's logistics. You text it like a person — it manages the shared family calendar, keeps the grocery and to-do lists, catches scheduling conflicts, and sends a proactive morning digest. No app to install.

Role
Designer · Engineer · PM
Timeline
2026 – present
Platform
SMS / iMessage — no app
Scope
Personal AI assistant
Sly morning digest text message Sly scheduling an event over text Sly managing the grocery list over text
The Project

A household assistant that lives in a text thread.

Sly is an AI assistant my family talks to entirely over text message. There's no app, no login, no new interface to learn — you save "Sly" as a contact and message it the way you'd message a person. Behind the friendly fox is an agent wired into our shared calendar and lists: it schedules events, tracks groceries and to-dos, flags conflicts with work, and proactively texts a morning digest of the day ahead.

I designed and built the whole thing solo — the conversation design, the agent logic, the calendar and list integrations, and the scheduled routines — using AI-assisted vibecoding to take it from idea to something my family relies on every day.

How it works

Everything, done by texting a fox.

Everything happens in natural language — no commands or syntax to memorize. Sly parses intent, asks a clarifying question only when it needs one, confirms in plain English, and quietly writes to the underlying calendar and lists.

01 · Digest
Proactive morning brief
Every day at 7 AM, Sly texts the day's schedule, tomorrow's preview, any conflicts with work hours, and open to-dos — before anyone has to ask.
02 · Scheduling
Conflict-aware calendar
"Set an event Friday at noon…" — Sly resolves the date, asks who it's for (me, my wife, or both), checks for conflicts, and adds it to the right calendar.
03 · Lists
Groceries & to-dos
"Add rice vinegar to the grocery list" just works. Ask to see it and Sly texts the list back, numbered and current — a shared list that stays tidy on its own.
04 · Alerts
Notifications & alerts
Beyond the daily digest, Sly reaches out on its own — a heads-up before an appointment, a nudge on an open to-do, or an alert when something needs attention.
05 · Guests
Guest access
When visitors come to stay, Sly adds them as guests and hands out exactly what they need — wifi password, gate code, house details — without you digging it up or repeating yourself.
Tech Stack

A small, glued-together stack doing a lot of work.

Sly is deliberately lightweight — a handful of services wired together so one person can build, run, and maintain it.

Claude (Anthropic)The agent brain — reads intent from plain-language texts, decides when to act vs. ask a clarifying question, and writes the replies.
Scheduled agents & routinesRecurring jobs — the 7 AM digest, reminders, and alerts — run on a schedule, unattended.
SMS gatewayTwo-way texting is the entire interface. No app, no login, no new surface to learn.
Google Calendar + ICS feedsThe shared, multi-person calendar with conflict detection across work and personal schedules.
Lightweight datastoreHolds the grocery and to-do lists, guests, and household info — wifi passwords, gate codes, and the like.
Guest access layerTime-boxed access so visitors can pull exactly the info they're given — and nothing more.