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Solo Developer Side Projects

A protected weekly build slot, ideas cut to a two-weekend scope, a deploy from day one, cheap hosting with a cost ceiling, and the routines that get personal software shipped, launched and either kept alive or retired well.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Solo Developer Side Projects, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

194

Starter tasks

⚙️ Software Engineering

Solo Developer Side Projects

Planning, building and actually shipping personal software projects alone, keeping scope small and momentum steady around a day job.

  1. Weekly side project time budget
  2. Employment contract and IP clause check
  3. Idea shortlist scored on five questions
  4. One-page brief with one user and one job
  5. Cutting version one to a two-weekend scope
  6. Boring stack choice for a solo builder
  7. Walking skeleton deployed on day one
  8. Personal accounts, domains and secrets register
  9. Monthly running cost ceiling
  10. Protected weekend build session
  11. Now, next and later backlog on one page
  12. Ship one visible change every month
  13. Build log and public changelog
  14. Monthly maintenance hour
  15. Quarterly keep, pause or kill review
  16. Quiet uptime and error alerts
  17. Feedback inbox read once a week
  18. Energy check around the day job
  19. Yearly renewals and subscriptions sweep
  20. Learning a new language through a tiny clone
  21. Tests for the riskiest ten percent
  22. Landing page that explains itself in one line
  23. Design basics for developers without a designer
  24. Estimating in build sessions, not hours
  25. Publishing a command-line tool to a package registry
  26. Running a small virtual server yourself safely
  27. Build, buy or glue check before writing code
  28. Moving off a free tier before it ends
  29. Rewrite temptation decision record
  30. Adding payments to a side project
  31. Open source or keep private decision
  32. Removing features nobody uses
  33. Making the project survive a month of neglect
  34. First public launch on a community board
  35. Solo entry to a weekend build jam
  36. Thirty-day ship challenge
  37. Demo at a local developer meetup
  38. Version one release day
  39. Shutting a project down gracefully
  40. A tool for your own creative practice
  41. Generative art or creative coding series
  42. Portfolio project aimed at a job change
  43. Fifteen-minute sessions for carers and new parents
  44. Getting hands-on again as a manager
  45. Building a small tool for a friend or local club
  46. Turning a side project into a paid product while employed
  47. Running a micro product with its first paying customers
  48. Selling or handing over a side project
  49. Technical case study of the build
  50. Small studio of products on one shared stack

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Weekly side project time budget

Side projects rarely fail on skill; they fail because the hours were never real. Writing down exactly which slots in a normal week belong to the project, say two evenings of ninety minutes and one Saturday morning, and agreeing them with the people you live with, turns a vague intention into a commitment you can plan scope against.

First tasks

  • List every fixed commitment in a normal week before choosing slots
  • Pick two to four build slots and total the hours honestly
  • Talk the slots through with whoever shares your evenings
  • Add the slots to your calendar as recurring events

Employment contract and IP clause check

Many employment contracts claim ownership of anything you invent while employed, and some require you to disclose outside work or avoid competing products. Reading your own contract and handbook before you build means you know where you stand, can ask for a written carve-out if needed, and will not discover a problem the week you start charging money.

First tasks

  • Find your signed contract and the current employee handbook
  • Highlight clauses on inventions, outside work and competition
  • Write a short summary of what they seem to cover
  • Decide whether to request a written carve-out from your manager or HR

Idea shortlist scored on five questions

Most developers carry a notes file of twenty ideas and start whichever one feels exciting on a Friday night. Scoring a shortlist against the same five questions (would I use it weekly, can version one ship in two weekends, do I know the domain, can I reach the first ten users, will it still interest me in three months) picks the idea most likely to get finished rather than the most glamorous one.

First tasks

  • Gather every idea you have written down into one list
  • Cut the list to no more than eight candidates
  • Score each candidate on the same five questions
  • Pick the winner and move the rest to a someday list

Make it yours.

Install Solo Developer Side Projects, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.