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Minimalist Daily Task Assistant

Inspiration

I often found myself juggling multiple tools just to manage simple daily tasks — reminders in my phone, sticky notes, calendar events, and more. What I really wanted was a calm, voice-first tool that could listen, understand, and speak to me when needed — like a minimal but present co-pilot throughout my day.

This project was inspired by the idea that task management doesn't have to be visual-heavy or overwhelming. Instead, it can be ambient, voice-driven, and always running quietly in the background — reminding you only when needed.

What it does

The Minimalist Daily Task Assistant is a browser-based app that:

Lets you add tasks by speaking (e.g., “Remind me to submit the report at 5 PM”)
Transcribes your speech using ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text
Parses time and task with chrono-node
Schedules a spoken reminder at the right time using ElevenLabs Text-to-Speech
Runs quietly in the background and speaks up when it’s time
Works beautifully on both desktop and mobile with a clean, minimalist design

How we built it

Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Voice Input: Audio recorded in-browser, sent to ElevenLabs STT API
Voice Output: Used ElevenLabs TTS API for high-quality spoken reminders
Time Parsing: Used chrono-node to extract datetime from natural language
Scheduling: Tasks scheduled with setTimeout to trigger reminders at the right time
Persistence: Used localStorage to persist tasks
Badge: Added the required Bolt.new badge as per hackathon guidelines — fixed, responsive, and interactive

Challenges we ran into

STT integration: Handling audio blob conversion and streaming it to ElevenLabs' API was tricky due to formatting and header issues.
Parsing spoken natural language: Handling ambiguous phrases like “remind me in an hour” required careful handling with chrono-node.
Browser audio capture limitations: Different browsers treat microphone permissions and audio duration differently, making testing unpredictable.
API key security: Since this runs in-browser, protecting the ElevenLabs API key in a public demo is still a challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a fully functional voice-based assistant in a single Bolt prompt
Created a smooth and minimalist user experience
Achieved fully speech-driven task creation and reminders using only client-side code
Complied with all hackathon rules including a fully responsive badge

What we learned

How to integrate ElevenLabs APIs for both STT and TTS
How to parse and manipulate human-friendly datetime expressions
How to think in terms of ambient, assistive UI — minimalist interfaces that don’t interrupt the user
Creative use of setTimeout for simulating scheduled reminders