Plan B

Inspiration

In most homes, plans change all the time. Someone gets stuck at work, a school pickup is coming up, and everyone starts messaging to figure out who can help. We wanted to make that easier.

Plan B gives households one place to check the day and figure out what to do when someone’s plans change.

What it does

You add the people in your household, their availability, and what they’re able to help with. If you’re running late, you can tell Plan B what happened in your own words. It checks the schedule and suggests who might be able to take over.

It also checks whether that person is free for the whole task and has permission to do it. You get to look over the suggestion before anyone is asked. There’s also a place to save small but useful details, like how much time Noah’s school pickup takes.

How we built it

We built Plan B with React and TypeScript. Supabase stores the household and schedule information, Gemini helps understand messages about plan changes, and the app is deployed on Vercel.

Getting the pieces to work together took thought. We wanted the assistant to use the household’s actual schedule and rules, while leaving the final decision to the person using the app.

Challenges we ran into

At first, it was tempting to treat “free” as the same as “available to help.” But that doesn’t always work. Someone might be free at the right time but not have permission to do a school pickup, or they might not have enough time to get there.

We built those checks into the suggestions. And if nobody fits, Plan B should say that clearly instead of acting like everything is sorted.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of the full flow: you can explain what changed, see a suggested plan, and understand why a task still needs help. It feels closer to the way a household would actually talk about a last-minute change.

We also made sure the AI doesn’t quietly send requests or make decisions for anyone. The person using the app stays in control.

What we learned

The details matter. Availability, permissions, travel time, and little household routines can change whether a suggestion is useful. We also learned that an AI suggestion is only helpful when people can see why it was made.

What’s next for Plan B

We’d like to connect Plan B to people’s calendars, make household invitations and replies work end to end, and add notifications for plan changes. Then we can try it with more households and see what actually helps them.

Built With

• react
• supabase
• typescript