Inspiration
Creative people often want to stay connected to their community, but social feeds are designed for endless scrolling. I wanted a calmer way to notice what people are talking about, find new writers, and decide what is worth attention without automating human interaction.
What it does
Social Compass is a local-first dashboard for writers and creative people. It summarizes what people in a watched X list are talking about today and can create a daily list of new creative accounts to review. Both actions are button-based and limited to once per day, with read budgets and candidate limits built in. It never posts, follows, likes, DMs, or replies automatically.
How we built it
I built Social Compass with Python, SQLite, Jinja templates, the X API, and OpenAI models. Codex helped design the architecture, implement the database, API clients, topic summaries, candidate discovery, static dashboard, local button server, and tests. GPT-5.6 was used through Codex to iterate quickly while keeping the tool scoped and safe.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge was keeping the product useful without making it feel like another engagement machine. We added manual buttons, daily limits, local storage, and no write actions. Another challenge was designing around API cost, so the app tracks reads and keeps discovery intentionally bounded.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Social Compass has a working local dashboard, generated visual design, topic digest flow, candidate discovery flow, SQLite persistence, daily button limits, tests, and clear setup instructions. I am especially proud that the product helps people participate more intentionally instead of pushing them to automate social behavior.
What we learned
Codex is strongest when the product goal is clear but the implementation path is still open. It helped turn a rough idea into a working app, while also catching design issues along the way, like avoiding fully automated discovery and removing the reply list when it felt too stressful. What's next for Social Compass Next steps include a sample data mode for reviewers, better onboarding for API keys, richer filtering for creative genres, improved bilingual UI, and optional exportable daily notes. I also want to make the dashboard useful even without X, by supporting imported lists or other community sources.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.