Fewer moving parts.

I run a lot of AI sessions at once, on several accounts, every day. These are the small tools I built to keep track of them, and what I'm learning along the way.

Simplicity and scale. Emphasis on learning.

Tools

What I use every day

Each one started as a fix for something that got in my way.

skillgarden

skillgarden is the open repository these ship from, one at a time, as each becomes dependable. Parley and ramgovern are out; public copies of the rest are in preparation.

Parley

One page per AI session: its open questions as cards, its decisions, and what it did while you were away. You answer with a comment and the comment wakes the session.

  • Cards sort by important and urgent.
  • A status bubble (green, amber, grey) so a comment never lands on a session that isn't listening.
  • A detail rail from zero to exhaustive.
/parley Read the source on GitHub Open source, Apache-2.0

Baton

Hand-offs between sessions that don't get lost. Each one is numbered, says what was asked and who asked, and leaves a receipt and a ledger line.

/baton In daily use

Chime

Hear which session needs you, and how badly, from across the room. Each session and each level of urgency has its own sound, and a blocked session is harder to miss.

/chime In daily use

Reprompt

Sessions that keep working between your prompts. They check in every 15, 30 or 50 minutes, and a session writes its recovery notes before its context is compacted.

/reprompt In daily use

ramgovern

Frees the RAM that idle AI sessions sit on. Every 5 minutes it moves idle Claude Code sessions out of memory. Nothing is killed, and a session takes its memory back the moment it works again. It ships switched off, with a dry run and a halt switch.

Download ramgovern v0.1.0 (.zip) Read the source first Read the field study (first draft)

SHA-256 1fae9c63204e88f5c5bb8e8d6e3b59fc29382827a578cac5e380859dc7b4c8c7

Before you run it
  • It ships switched off and trims nothing until you turn it on.
  • Run the dry run and the self-check first.
  • Windows marks downloaded files. Read the scripts, then run Unblock-File on them; the README's commands use -ExecutionPolicy Bypass for each run.
  • It frees RAM, not commit charge, so it won't help a machine that is out of page file.
  • Windows 10 or 11 only. Plain-text PowerShell and Python, no binaries, no admin rights.
Free download

familycfo

A household money ledger in one web page. Export your transactions as a CSV, describe your household in one config file, and the page draws the rest: spending, vendors, cash in and out, subscriptions and more. It comes with a sample household, so it runs before you add your own data, and your data stays on your machine. No account, no sign-up.

Read the source on GitHub
Try the sample
  • Run python make_sample.py, then python build_data.py.
  • Open index.html through a local web server.

Not affiliated with Anthropic, Tiller or any bank.

In preparation

Watchdogs

Know when a session has quietly stopped working: a dead connection, a lapsed loop, a stale hand-off.

In daily use

Usage receipts

Know what each turn would cost at API prices. A receipt for every turn, built from your own local records: tokens, cache hit rate and an API-price benchmark, which is a comparison, not a bill. Nothing is sent anywhere.

In daily use

NectarDock

NectarDock

An account-aware switchboard for AI coding sessions: which account, which workspace, which conversation, in one view. The desktop app stays a private prototype. A thin VS Code extension is going to a closed alpha: pick a Claude account, open a folder under it in its own profile (with a guard against opening into a profile that is already busy), see your sessions read-only, run one diagnostics command. No Python, no writes to your histories or sign-ins, no telemetry. Windows first.

Alpha builds ship under an evaluation licence (testing only, no redistribution, no warranty). Free to download.

Closed alpha: VS Code extension. Sign up below.

Soundboard

One board that sets the sound for each session and each level of urgency.

In daily use, private

Free utilities

Small, free, no sign-up

Standalone scripts you can read before you run.

Codex usage comparison

Compares a Codex plan's weekly allowance and cost before and after extra usage starts, from your own local logs. It compares one plan with itself, not one provider with another.

Staged

Field notes

What I'm learning

Short write-ups of what worked and what didn't. The first ones are in draft.

Closed beta

Try the private tools

I'm keeping the group small so I can act on what people tell me. Expect rough edges.

Interested in

I'll write when there's something to try.

Rather email? Write to join@thealignedfew.com.

About

Max Eckemoff, early adopter and explorer

If you're exploring this too, I'd like to hear from you.

Get in touch: join@thealignedfew.com.

Share your project

Building something with AI?

Tell me about it. I'm mapping projects against each other, so people working on the same problem can find each other.

I read every one. Nothing is published without your say-so.

Rather email? Send the link to join@thealignedfew.com.

Community channel: coming soon