Hi, I'm Jeff. I build little apps for fun.

Side projects, weekend experiments and notes on whatever I'm learning. Nothing for sale here, just the joy of making things work.

tinkering right now web + mobile mostly SwiftUI
Featured project · testing phase

StarChores

An iOS app where parents and kids team up on chores, with a reward system to keep everyone going.

SwiftUIiOS2026
By the numbers
3projects
1app in testing
13badges kids can earn
0npm deps in Chore Calendar
Now

Building

  • StarChores, now in testing

Learning

  • Swift and SwiftUI
  • CSS view transitions
  • A little Rust

Reading

  • A Philosophy of Software Design
  • Refactoring UI

updated Oct 2026

Weekend idea A habit tracker that runs in the terminal, built with Go.
Toolbox
SwiftUISwiftXcodeTypeScriptReactNodePostgresRustFigma

Highlighted = what I reach for first.

Say hi
email jgruber@darkstardev.us
github jgruber96

Things I've built

Just getting started. Here's what I'm building right now, with more on the way.

testing phase

StarChores2026

An iOS app that lets parents and kids work together to get chores done, with a reward system that makes finishing them worth it.

SwiftUIiOS
  • Parents and kids share one chore list
  • Finished chores earn rewards
  • Coded completely in SwiftUI
  • Based on my Chore Calendar web app
shipped · on hold

Chore Calendar2026

The web app StarChores grew out of. A shared family chore calendar that runs on the home Wi-Fi: every phone sees the same calendar and changes show up on all of them within about a second. No accounts, no sign-in.

Node.jsServer-Sent EventsDockerPWAiCloud calendar
github.com/jgruber96/chore-calendar ↗
peek at the code 
// server.js: each phone keeps this stream open for live updates
function stream(req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/event-stream" });
  res.write(`event: state\ndata: ${JSON.stringify(publicState())}\n\n`);
  listeners.add(res);
  req.on("close", () => listeners.delete(res));
}
  • Live sync to every phone with Server-Sent Events
  • Stars, streaks, 13 badges and reward goals
  • Family board mode for a tablet on the fridge
  • Parent PIN, kid PINs and "check it" chores
shipped

Terminal Homepage2026

An earlier take on my personal homepage: a hacker-style terminal in amber, with a working shell, matrix rain and light/dark themes.

HTMLCSSJavaScript
github.com/jgruber96/homepage ↗
peek at the code 
$ help
$ neofetch
$ theme green
$ matrix
  • A shell you can type commands into
  • Five color themes, including amber and green

Ideas on the shelf

My running backlog. Most stay ideas forever, and that's fine. When one moves right, it becomes a project.

Someday2

Rodeo Queen iOS app

An iPhone app for rodeo queens and the events they compete in.

iOS idea

Reloading Data App

A logbook for ammunition reloading recipes and results.

data logging
Prototyping2

StarPocket

A new companion app to StarChores.

new app · → StarChores

Darkstar Blog

Longer write-ups about what I'm building and learning. It's starting out as Notes.

→ read Notes
Became a project2

Custom uptime page

A status page for my sites and apps, powered by Upptime and themed to match darkstarDEV.

→ view status ↗

Chores kids actually want to do

Now in testing as StarChores.

→ featured above
Contact

Questions? Get in touch.

Curious about StarChores, Chore Calendar or anything else here? Send me an email and I'll get back to you.

jgruber@darkstardev.us
Or find me on GitHub: github.com/jgruber96 ↗