Billington Works / Work

AI notebook · 2026

An AI-powered notebook that runs the workday

Notes, to-dos, calendar, and recorded meetings in plain text files, so an AI assistant can work in them alongside its owner.

From a client walk-through note to the drainage thread that links it to two others.
100%
of notes in plain files the owner controls
Every weekday
a morning brief with suggested next steps
All notes
read together to spot connections across meetings and people

The situation

Most notes apps keep your notes in their own format, behind their own walls. That is fine for reading, but an AI assistant can't do much with notes it can't open.

The goal was the opposite: every note, to-do, and meeting record in plain text files the owner controls, in a format any AI can read and write. Then the assistant does real work in the system, not just answers questions about it.

What I built

  • An app for phone and laptop that works without a signal, with an editor that styles notes as you type. Every page is a plain text file stored privately where the owner controls it, so the notes would outlive the app.
  • Record a meeting on a phone and email or share it in. It comes back as a transcript with each speaker labeled, and the AI drafts the meeting note: a summary, decisions, and open items, plus updates to the pages of the people who were there. Drafts wait for the owner's review.
  • The AI reads across every note, meeting, and person's page to spot what a person would miss. In the demo landscaping business, three client walk-throughs weeks apart each mention standing water by the back fence after a storm, so the AI links them into one drainage thread and the morning brief suggests offering a drainage add-on. Every person has a page too, with their meetings, their open loops, and every note that mentions them, and typing @ and a name links them from any note.
  • Each weekday morning the AI writes a short brief with suggested next steps the owner accepts, carries, or drops with one tap. The owner can also leave a request right in a note by starting a line with @ai, and an overnight pass does exactly what the line asks.

Guardrails come first: the brief proposes and never edits on its own, and the assistant never edits a note the owner wrote by hand, except the one line where they ask with @ai. There is no server to run or maintain, and every change is saved with its history, so backups, undo, and a record of everything the assistant changed come built in.

For your business

A business can run the same way: client meetings that write themselves up, plus your SOPs, client notes, and job checklists in plain files you own, with an AI assistant that keeps them current and tells you what needs attention today.

Why custom

Off-the-shelf notes apps make you work their way. This one works its owner's way: their notebooks, their to-do priorities, their morning brief, and an AI assistant with rules they set about what it may and may not touch.

The home view: the morning brief's suggested next steps, including the drainage add-on, beside the calendar and critical tasks. Shown with a demo notebook for a fictional landscaping business.
The home view: the morning brief's suggested next steps, including the drainage add-on, beside the calendar and critical tasks. Shown with a demo notebook for a fictional landscaping business.
A person's page: meetings on the calendar with them, open loops, and every note that mentions them.
A person's page: meetings on the calendar with them, open loops, and every note that mentions them.
Notes drafted from recorded meetings wait for the owner's review.
Notes drafted from recorded meetings wait for the owner's review.
Voice recordings wait in the Inbox; one tap files each to Meetings, where it comes back as a drafted note.
Voice recordings wait in the Inbox; one tap files each to Meetings, where it comes back as a drafted note.
To-dos by list, with this week's priorities and due dates.
To-dos by list, with this week's priorities and due dates.
A request left in a note with @ai, and an earlier one after the overnight pass did it.
A request left in a note with @ai, and an earlier one after the overnight pass did it.
On a phone.
On a phone.

Built with

Vanilla JavaScript PWA · CodeMirror 6 · markdown in GitHub · GitHub Actions · AssemblyAI transcription · Claude · Playwright

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