Behind-the-scenes of building indie apps. Product stories, technical deep dives, and lessons from shipping products in 6-day sprints.
How I redesigned the brand identity for every Helsky Labs product in a single sprint using Recraft AI, Figma, and Claude Code - from scattered aesthetics to a cohesive product family.
The story of rewriting DropVox from Python to native Swift -- why the prototype had to die for the product to live.
Why I built a command center to track eight products, what the recent refactor changed, and why flying blind is the real risk for solo builders.
How I ship DropVox for two platforms without Electron -- native Swift for macOS, native C#/WinUI 3 for Windows, and the CI/CD that ties it together.
How running AI locally became the defining feature of two Helsky Labs products -- and why it changes the economics of indie software.
Introducing Falavra -- a desktop app that transcribes YouTube videos locally using Whisper AI. No cloud, no subscriptions, your data stays on your machine.
How I added 'who said what' to Falavra's local transcription pipeline using sherpa-onnx's built-in speaker diarization -- no Python, no cloud, no new dependencies.
A packed week at Helsky Labs: DropVox 1.0, TokenCentric launch, BookBit i18n, Gitography AI pipeline, and a polished command center to track it all.
DropVox 1.0 is here -- a native macOS app that transcribes voice messages locally using AI. No cloud uploads, no subscriptions, no compromises on privacy.
TokenCentric is a free, open-source desktop app for managing CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, copilot-instructions, and other AI context files with real-time token counting.
The story behind DropVox, a free macOS app that transcribes voice messages using local AI. No cloud, no subscriptions, no privacy compromises. Here's why I built it and what I learned.
Introducing Helsky Labs: an indie software studio shipping useful apps and tools. Learn about our philosophy, products, and what's coming next.
A technical guide to building apps with on-device AI. Why local processing matters in 2026, the tools available, and lessons from building DropVox with local Whisper.
The methodology behind how I ship indie products quickly. A day-by-day breakdown of the 6-day sprint, with real examples from DropVox, Days as Numbers, and other Helsky Labs products.
Why 10,000 days feels different than 27 years. The story behind Days as Numbers, an iOS app that measures life in days instead of years—a gentler memento mori for the modern age.